South Middlesex Times

Historical policies on educational attainment may have lasting effects on memory and dementia risk, according to a study led by a Rutgers Health researcher. The research, published in Epidemiology, examined how state schooling mandates influenced cognitive performance outcomes decades later.

"Policies to increase the quantity or quality of schooling now are likely to have long-term benefits on cognitive outcomes," said Min Hee Kim, a faculty member at the Center for Health Services Research at the Rutgers Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research. Kim is also an assistant professor at the Rutgers School of Nursing.

The study found that education provides similar benefits for later-life cognitive outcomes across racial groups. However, improvements in education access and quality could have a larger impact on Black Americans due to their greater exposure to limited educational resources.

Researchers discovered that education can predict better cognitive performance, memory function, life expectancy, and delayed onset of Alzheimer's disease or dementia. Despite evidence linking schooling laws with cognition in older adults, gaps remain in equitable research. Previous studies often combined data from white and Black older adults without considering inconsistent enforcement of school mandates for Black children.

Kim's team analyzed data from over 20,000 older Black and white adults while evaluating state education policies during her postdoctoral tenure at the University of California San Francisco from 2022 to 2024. They found that increased years of education due to mandatory schooling laws were linked with better cognitive performance later in life.

The research specifically focused on Black Americans' educational experiences shaped by historical segregation and discrimination. "Investment in education is important for health equity," Kim emphasized. She noted that residing in states with high-quality childhood education correlates with lower dementia risk later in life.

Coauthors include researchers from Montclair State University, Kaiser Permanente Northwest, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, University of Maryland School of Public Health, Columbia University, University of Alabama at Birmingham, and Boston University.