| Title: | The effects of education on cognition in older age: Evidence from genotyped Siblings |
| Journal: | Social Science & Medicine |
| Published: | 18 May 2021 |
| Pubmed: | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34029863/ |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114044 |
| URL: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8205990 |
Publication 5845
WARNING: the interactive features of this website use CSS3, which your browser does not support. To use the full features of this website, please update your browser.
Abstract
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.4 Authors
- Jason Fletcher
- Michael Topping
- Fengyi Zheng
- Qiongshi Lu
Enabling scientific discoveries that improve human health