Document Type
Article
Publication Date
5-2-2023
Abstract
We leveraged a unique school-based longitudinal cohort—the Project Talent Aging Study—to examine whether attending higher quality schools is associated with cognitive performance among older adults in the United States (mean age = 74.8). Participants (n = 2,289) completed telephone neurocognitive testing. Six indicators of high school quality, reported by principals at the time of schooling, were predictors of respondents’ cognitive function 58 years later. To account for school-clustering, multilevel linear and logistic models were applied. We found that attending schools with a higher number of teachers with graduate training was the clearest predictor of later-life cognition, and school quality mattered especially for language abilities. Importantly, Black respondents (n = 239; 10.5 percentage) were disproportionately exposed to low quality high schools. Therefore, increased investment in schools, especially those that serve Black children, could be a powerful strategy to improve later life cognitive health among older adults in the United States.
Recommended Citation
Seblova D, Eng C, Avila-Rieger JF, et al. High school quality is associated with cognition 58 years later. Alzheimers Dement (Amst). 2023;15(2):e12424. https://doi.org/10.1002/dad2.12424
Supplementary Information
dad212424-sup-0002-suppmat.docx (734 kB)
Supplementary Information
Copyright
The authors
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
Included in
Cognition and Perception Commons, Disability and Equity in Education Commons, Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons, Educational Sociology Commons, Race and Ethnicity Commons, Secondary Education Commons
Comments
This article was originally published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring (DADM), volume 15, issue 2, in 2023. https://doi.org/10.1002/dad2.12424