IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/geronb/v74y2019i3p536-545..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Recent Improvements in Cognitive Functioning Among Older U.S. Adults: How Much Does Increasing Educational Attainment Explain?

Author

Listed:
  • Amanda Leggett
  • Philippa Clarke
  • Kara Zivin
  • Ryan J McCammon
  • Michael R Elliott
  • Kenneth M Langa

Abstract

ObjectivesRecent interest has been generated about reports of declining incidence in cognitive impairment among more recently born cohorts. At the same time, attained education, which is related to cognition, has increased in recent cohorts of older adults. We examined cohort differences in cognitive function in a nationally representative sample of Americans aged 25 and older followed for 25 years (1986–2011) and considered the extent to which cohort differences in education account for differences.MethodData come from the Americans’ Changing Lives Study (N = 3,617). Multiple cohort latent growth models model trajectories of cognition (errors on the Short Portable Mental Status Questionnaire) across four 15-year birth cohorts. Demographic factors, educational attainment, and time-varying health conditions were covariates.ResultsSignificant cohort differences were found in the mean number of cognitive errors (e.g., 0.26 more errors at age 65 in cohort born pre-1932 vs cohort born 1947–1961, p < .001). Although demographic and health conditions were associated with level and rate of change in cognitive dysfunction, education solely accounted for cohort differences.DiscussionCompression of cognitive morbidity is seen among the highly educated, and increasing educational opportunities may be an important strategy for decreasing the risk for cognitive impairment in later life.

Suggested Citation

  • Amanda Leggett & Philippa Clarke & Kara Zivin & Ryan J McCammon & Michael R Elliott & Kenneth M Langa, 2019. "Recent Improvements in Cognitive Functioning Among Older U.S. Adults: How Much Does Increasing Educational Attainment Explain?," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 74(3), pages 536-545.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:geronb:v:74:y:2019:i:3:p:536-545.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/geronb/gbw210
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John Mirowsky, 2011. "Cognitive Decline and the Default American Lifestyle," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 66(suppl_1), pages 50-58.
    2. Ryan P. Bowles & Kevin J. Grimm & John J. McArdle, 2005. "A Structural Factor Analysis of Vocabulary Knowledge and Relations to Age," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 60(5), pages 234-241.
    3. Duane F. Alwin & Ryan J. McCammon, 2001. "Aging, Cohorts, and Verbal Ability," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 56(3), pages 151-161.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sean A. P. Clouston & Graciela Muniz Terrera & Joseph Lee Rodgers & Patrick O'Keefe & Frank D. Mann & Nathan A. Lewis & Linda Wänström & Jeffrey Kaye & Scott M. Hofer, 2021. "Cohort and Period Effects as Explanations for Declining Dementia Trends and Cognitive Aging," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 47(3), pages 611-637, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Oi, Katsuya, 2017. "Inter-connected trends in cognitive aging and depression: Evidence from the health and retirement study," Intelligence, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 56-65.
    2. Qi, Yaqiang & Xiong, Yajie, 2023. "Intercohort upsurge of cognitive ability among the general population in China: Evaluating a Flynn effect," Intelligence, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    3. France Portrait & Rob Alessie & Dorly Deeg, 2010. "Do early life and contemporaneous macroconditions explain health at older ages?," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 23(2), pages 617-642, March.
    4. Raphaëlle Lambert-Pandraud & Gilles Laurent & Etienne Mullet & Carolyn Yoon, 2017. "Impact of age on brand awareness sets: a turning point in consumers’ early 60s," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 28(2), pages 205-218, June.
    5. Gerstorf, Denis & Hülür, Gizem & Drewelies, Johanna & Eibich, Peter & Duezel, Sandra & Demuth, Ilja & Ghisletta, Paolo & Steinhagen-Thiessen, Elisabeth & Wagner, Gert G. & Lindenberger, Ulman, 2015. "Secular Changes in Late-Life Cognition and Well-Being: Towards a Long Bright Future with a Short Brisk Ending?," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 30(2), pages 301-310.
    6. DeSarbo Wayne S., 2010. "A Spatial Multidimensional Unfolding Choice Model for Examining the Heterogeneous Expressions of Sports Fan Avidity," Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports, De Gruyter, vol. 6(2), pages 1-24, April.
    7. Liying Luo & John Robert Warren, 2023. "Describing and explaining age, period, and cohort trends in Americans’ vocabulary knowledge," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 42(3), pages 1-34, June.
    8. Twenge, Jean M. & Campbell, W. Keith & Sherman, Ryne A., 2019. "Declines in vocabulary among American adults within levels of educational attainment, 1974–2016," Intelligence, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 1-1.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:geronb:v:74:y:2019:i:3:p:536-545.. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/psychsocgerontology .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.