BACKGROUND Greater levels of education are associated with lower risk of dementia, but less is known about how education is also associated with the compression of dementia incidence. OBJECTIVE We extend the literature on morbidity compression by evaluating whether increased levels of education are associated with greater dementia compression. We evaluate these patterns across race and gender groups. METHODS We use the Health and Retirement Study (2000-2016), a nationally representative longitudinal study of older adults in the United States. To evaluate the onset and compression of dementia across education groups, we examine the age-specific distribution of dementia events, identifying the modal age of onset and the standard deviation above the mode (a measure of compression). RESULTS While the modal age of onset is around 85 years among adults with a college degree, the modal age for adults with less than a high school education occurs before age 65 - at least a 20-year difference. The standard deviation of dementia onset is about three times greater for adults with less than a high school education compared to adults with a college degree. Patterns were consistent across race and gender groups. CONCLUSION This research highlights the variability of dementia experiences in the older population by documenting differences in longevity without dementia and compression of dementia onset among more educated adults and less educated adults. CONTRIBUTION We incorporate conceptual insights from the life span variability and compression literature to better understand education-dementia disparities in both the postponement and uncertainty of dementia onset in the US population.

中文翻译：

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教育对于了解美国痴呆症发病变异性的重要性。


背景技术较高的教育水平与较低的痴呆风险相关，但人们对教育如何与痴呆发病率下降之间的关系知之甚少。目的 通过评估教育水平的提高是否与更大的痴呆症压缩相关，我们扩展了有关发病率压缩的文献。我们评估不同种族和性别群体的这些模式。方法 我们使用健康与退休研究（2000-2016），这是一项针对美国老年人的全国代表性纵向研究。为了评估不同教育群体痴呆症的发病和压缩，我们检查了痴呆事件的年龄分布，确定了发病的众数年龄和高于众数的标准差（压缩的衡量标准）。结果 具有大学学历的成年人的发病最常年龄约为 85 岁，而高中以下学历的成年人的发病最常年龄为 65 岁之前，两者之间至少有 20 年的差异。与拥有大学学历的成年人相比，高中以下学历的成年人痴呆症发病的标准差大约高出三倍。不同种族和性别群体的模式是一致的。结论 这项研究通过记录受教育程度较高的成年人和受教育程度较低的成年人在没有痴呆的情况下的寿命差异以及痴呆发作的压缩情况，强调了老年人群中痴呆经历的差异。贡献我们结合了来自寿命变异和压缩文献的概念性见解，以更好地理解美国人口中痴呆症发病延迟和不确定性方面的教育-痴呆差异。