Intergenerational Educational Attainment and Risk for Incident Dementia: The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Neurocognitive Study

Authors

• S Gupta
• V Morrill
• RC Groechel
• A Kucharska-Newton
• TH Mosley
• PL Lutsey
• E Meza
• RF Gottesman

Abstract

Individuals with higher educational attainment have a lower risk for dementia, but it is less clear how educational attainment of an individual’s parents influences dementia risk. Participants from the ARIC study, a community-based prospective cohort, were asked their own educational level (at study baseline; 1987-1989; ages 44-66 years) and that of each of their parents several years later. Dementia status was ascertained from Visit 1 through 2020 using expert committee diagnosis. Educational level was classified (for participants and the higher-educated parent) as less than high school (<HS); high school or GED (HS); and more than high school (>HS). We defined “overachievement” as a participant having higher educational attainment than their parent. Adjusted Cox-proportional hazard models were used to evaluate the association between intergenerational educational attainment and incident dementia risk. High parental education level (>HS: HR, 0.88; 95% CI, 0.80-0.99) and individual education level (>HS: HR, 0.62; 95% CI, 0.55-0.70) were each significantly and independently associated with a lower risk of dementia. Additionally, among participants whose parents had <HS education, overachieving parental education (i.e. participant has completed HS (HR, 0.69; 95% CI, 0.60-0.79) or completed >HS (HR, 0.65; 95% CI, 0.56-0.75)) was significantly associated with lower dementia risk. Individuals with parents of higher educational attainment exhibit a reduced risk of dementia, and higher individual educational level is associated with reduced dementia risk, independent of parental education. Moreover, surpassing parental educational attainment, compared to matching it, is associated with a reduced risk of dementia.

Scientific Focus Area: Epidemiology

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