According to the latest research from the United States, the healthy, wealthy and well educated are less likely to suffer from memory loss and dementia as they age.
Dementia is the term used to describe the symptoms of a large group of illnesses, which cause a progressive decline in a person’s mental functioning; it is a broad term which describes a loss of memory, intellect, rationality, social skills and normal emotional reactions.
Dementia usually has an insidious onset, with most people developing symptoms gradually over a period of years.
This latest study was conducted by researchers from the Universities of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Harvard along with Group Health and it set out to determine whether recent medical, demographic and social trends might have an impact on the cognitive health of older adults.
In order to do this they used data from the Health and Retirement Study, a national survey of 11,000 older adults funded by the U.S. National Institute on Aging and based at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research.
The 11,000 individuals involved formed two nationally representative population groups, age seventy years or older, from 1993-1995 and then from 2002-2004.
The research team compared the frequency of cognitive impairment with respect to dementia and incidences of mortality and found that more years of education may have influenced the prevalence and outcomes of dementia.
It was found that the proportion of adults 65 and older with high school diplomas increased from 53 percent in 1990 to 72 percent in 2003 and the proportion with college degrees increased from 11 percent to 17 percent during the same time period.
They also found that the 1993 group had cognitive impairment (CI) 12.2 percent of the time, while the 2002 group only had CI 8.7 percent of the time.
In both groups, the presence of CI was found to increase the risk of death.
Cognitive function was tested on a 35-point scale and included counting backward, object naming, recalling the day's date, and naming the president and vice president.
They suggest that added years of education lead to higher brain development and function, better health behaviours and the "general advantages of having more wealth and social opportunities".