PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Education is among the most important predictors of cognitive functioning and cognitive impairment (including
MCI and AD/ADRD). However, because scientists do not know how or why education matters for these cognitive
outcomes, it is difficult to design effective interventions. There is currently very little information about (a) the
specific aspects of education that prevent or provide resilience to cognitive impairment and (b) the pathways
through which those effects operate. A major reason for this lack of information about how or why education
matters for these cognitive outcomes is that data on educational opportunities, environments, and attainments
have mainly been gathered via retrospective reports. To know how and why education matters for cognitive
functioning and impairment, the scientific community needs high quality prospective studies that follow young
people through schools and throughout adulthood, measures key and modifiable aspects of education, and then
assess cognitive functioning later in life.
This project brings together an interdisciplinary team of leading neurologists, neuropsychologists, sociologists,
education scientists, and survey methodologists who will design protocols to re-contact all ˜25,500 surviving
members the High School & Beyond (HSB) cohort—a nationally representative random sample of Americans
first interviewed in high school in 1980—and use the resulting data to conduct transformative analyses of the
effects of education on cognitive function and risk for impairment at midlife. The project has five aims: (Aim 1)
To estimate the effects of (a) adolescent cognitive and non-cognitive skills, (b) secondary school course taking
and college field of study, and (c) other school structures and social environments on cognitive functioning and
impairment at midlife; (Aim 2) To assess the degree to which racial/ethnic differences in those aspects of
education explain racial/ethnic disparities in cognitive functioning and impairment; (Aim 3) To assess the degree
to which the effects of education are mediated by educational attainment, economic strain, and the cognitive
complexity of paid jobs at midlife; and (Aim 4) To assess the degree to which race/ethnicity and genetic risk
factors moderate the effects of education on cognitive functioning and impairment. To gather the data required
to pursue these Aims, the investigators will conduct an internet/phone survey and gather genetic material via a
mail-back saliva kit. (Aim5) The resulting database and associated documentation and metadata will be made
freely available to the research community to facilitate scholarship on the development of MCI, AD/ADRD, and
cognitive decline.
