B. Schmand et al., LOW EDUCATION IS A GENUINE RISK FACTOR FOR ACCELERATED MEMORY DECLINEAND DEMENTIA, Journal of clinical epidemiology, 50(9), 1997, pp. 1025-1033
A relatively high prevalence and incidence of dementia have been found
in population strata with low levels of education in comparison to po
pulation strata with high levels of education. However, doubt remains
whether this may be an artifact of education bias in the screening tes
ts used. To investigate this matter, we analyzed results of two Dutch
population surveys in which unbiased measures of memory decline were u
sed. In the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (n = 1774) the percenta
ge of words retained in a verbal learning test was found to be disprop
ortionately low in the oldest age cohort (80-85 years) with less than
11 years of education. The Amsterdam Study of the Elderly (n = 4051) f
ound a ''dose-response'' relationship between education and dementia p
revalence. Cross-sectional and longitudinal results showed that, in le
ss educated people, memory decline is faster and sets in at an earlier
age. These findings indicate that the relationship between dementia a
nd education is not just an artifact of case detection methods. (C) 19
97 Elsevier Science Inc.