Fletcher Jason, Topping Michael, Zheng Fengyi, Lu Qiongshi
La Follette School of Public Affairs and Department of Sociology, Center for Demography of Health and Aging, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA.
Department of Sociology, Center for Demography of Health and Aging, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA.
Soc Sci Med. 2021 Jul;280:114044. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114044. Epub 2021 May 18.
A growing literature has sought to tie educational attainment with later-life cognition and Alzheimer's disease outcomes. This paper leverages sibling comparisons in educational attainment as well as genetic predictors (polygenic scores) for cognition, educational attainment, and Alzheimer's disease to estimate effects of educational attainment on cognition in older age in the United Kingdom. We find that the effects of education on cognition are confounded by family background factors (~40%) and by genetics (<10%). After adjustments, we continue to find large effects of education. College graduates have cognition scores that are approximately 0.75 SD higher than those who report no credentials. We also find evidence that educational effects on cognition are smaller for those with high polygenic scores for Alzheimer's disease.
越来越多的文献试图将教育程度与晚年认知及阿尔茨海默病的结果联系起来。本文利用教育程度方面的兄弟姐妹比较以及认知、教育程度和阿尔茨海默病的基因预测指标（多基因分数），来估计英国教育程度对老年人认知的影响。我们发现，教育对认知的影响受到家庭背景因素（约40%）和基因（<10%）的混淆。调整后，我们仍然发现教育有很大影响。大学毕业生的认知得分比那些没有学历的人高出约0.75个标准差。我们还发现有证据表明，对于阿尔茨海默病多基因分数高的人来说，教育对认知的影响较小。
