Education, Employment Status, Late-life Verbal Activities, and Cognition among Older Americans using Aging, Demographic, and Memory Study (ADAMS)

Objectives:

Based on the cognitive reserve theory, relationships among education, employment status, and cognition have been found in many studies. However, there are only few studies specifically investigating the influence of late-life verbal activities (reading, writing, and discussing) on cognition, comparing those who are yet impaired with cognition vs. who are already in the process of cognitive deterioration. This study aims to examine aforementioned predictors on cognition; categorized into normal, cognitively impaired not demented (CIND) and demented given by the expert consensus panel.

Methods:

The study employed a national sample of American older adults (70+) from the ‘Aging, Demographics, and Memory Study’. 702 respondents (Normal: 270, CIND: 190, Demented: 242) were included in the final analysis using multinomial logistic regression, controlling for age, sex, race, employment status, depression, perceived health, and ApoE genotype. CIND was treated as a reference group.  

Results:

Results showed that longer education years (OR=1.10, CI=1.02-1.17), current employment (OR=4.30, CI=1.55-11.94), and more engagement in verbal activities (OR=1.20, CI=1.11-1.31) increased the odds to be diagnosed with normal cognition than with CIND. On the other hand, education years and employment status were not significant predictor when comparing CIND vs. demented group. Only engagement in verbal activities decreased the odds (OR=0.70, CI=0.64-0.76) to be diagnosed with dementia than with CIND.

Conclusions:

Findings suggest that late-life verbal activities are important for both normal and cognitively impaired group to prevent any or further deterioration while education and employment status were only significant for normal vs. CIND group. Different approaches will be required for implementation purposes on two groups.