Parental education tied to cognitive function in middle-aged and older adults

Parental education may protect offspring’s cognitive health later in life, according to a study published online May 30 in JAMA Network Open.

Shengyu Luo, from Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou, China, and colleagues evaluated the association of maternal and paternal education with cognitive decline over time among middle-aged and older adults in four countries. The analysis included 7,898 participants from China, 12,402 from the United States, 6,603 from England, and 9,162 from Mexico.

The researchers found that compared with less than primary education, maternal education at the upper secondary level or higher was associated with slower rates of decline in cognitive state (β = 0.082 standard deviations [SD] per year in China; β = 0.025 SD per year in the United States; and β = 0.040 SD per year in England).

In the Mexican cohort, only primary maternal education was associated with slower decline in cognitive state (β = 0.010 SD per year). A similar association with slower cognitive state decline results was seen for paternal education at the upper secondary level or higher compared with less than primary in the Chinese (β = 0.042 SD per year), U.S. (β = 0.027 SD per year), and English cohorts (β = 0.044 SD per year).

In the Mexican cohort, a significant association was seen for primary paternal education (β = 0.010 SD per year). The associations between parental education and annual decline in cognitive state were significantly mediated by the participants’ own education for all cohorts, except Mexico.

“These findings highlight the long-term relevance of parental education for offspring’s cognitive health across diverse cultural or socioeconomic contexts, and support the potential benefits of improving educational attainment to reduce intergenerational disparities in late-life cognitive health,” the authors write.

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