Division of Surveillance, Hazard Evaluations, and Field Studies, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Cincinnati, Ohio.
Department of Psychology, University of Alabama at Birmingham.
J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2019 Sep 15;74(7):1189-1199. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbx112.
Positive associations between education and late-life cognition have been widely reported. This study examines whether occupational complexity mediates the relationship between education and late-life cognition, and whether the magnitude of mediation differs by race, gender, or education level.
Data were from a population-based cohort of non-Hispanic Blacks and Whites aged ≥45 years (n = 7,357). Education was categorized as less than high school, high school, some college, and college or higher. Using linear regression, we estimated the direct effect of each successive increase in education on cognitive functioning and indirect effects via substantive complexity of work.
Occupational complexity significantly mediated 11%-22% of the cognitive gain associated with higher levels of education. The pattern of mediation varied between White men and all other race-gender groups: among White men, the higher the education, the greater the mediation effect by occupational complexity. Among Black men and women of both races, the higher the education, the smaller the mediation effect.
Higher levels of education may provide opportunity for intellectually engaging environments throughout adulthood in the form of complex work, which may protect late-life cognition. However, this protective effect of occupational complexity may not occur equally across race-gender subgroups.
教育与晚年认知之间呈正相关关系已被广泛报道。本研究旨在检验职业复杂性是否在教育与晚年认知之间起中介作用，以及这种中介作用是否因种族、性别或教育程度而有所不同。
数据来自一个基于人群的、年龄在 45 岁及以上的非西班牙裔黑人和白人队列（n=7357）。教育程度分为低于高中、高中、部分大学和大学或以上。我们使用线性回归来估计每增加一个教育程度对认知功能的直接影响，以及通过工作实质复杂性的间接影响。
职业复杂性显著中介了与较高教育程度相关的 11%-22%的认知增益。这种中介模式在白种男性和其他所有种族-性别群体之间存在差异：在白种男性中，教育程度越高，职业复杂性的中介效应越大。在黑人和白种男女中，教育程度越高，中介效应越小。
较高的教育程度可能通过复杂的工作为成年后的智力环境提供机会，从而保护晚年认知。然而，职业复杂性的这种保护作用在不同种族-性别亚组中可能并不均等。
