- Adult education is linked to a reduced risk of dementia in a new study.
- The study finds that people who took adult education classes were 19% less likely to develop dementia later on.
- Experts advise that the most important overall action is maintaining a healthy lifestyle that helps keep the body and mind fit.
People who took adult education classes in middle-to-old age are less likely to develop dementia or experience cognitive decline later on in life, according to a new study from Tohoku University in Senda, Japan.
Individuals participating in adult education classes at the start of the study had a 19% lower risk of dementia five years later.
The study’s author analyzed data from 282,421 people who had enrolled with the UK Biobank between 2006 and 2010. At enrollment, they were between 40 and 69 years old and were followed for 7 years for the purposes of this study.
The UK Biobank contains medical and health information and genetic information for each enrolled individual, allowing the current study’s authors to score their likelihood of developing dementia.
The study found that while adult education classes were associated with preserving fluid intelligence, there was no protective effect on visuospatial memory or reaction time.
As an observational study, the authors do not assert a causal connection between adult education and a lower risk of dementia but merely an association of the two.
The study is published in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience.
Drawing on a population that spans 29 years in age, it is unclear if there is an age at which the protective benefit of adult education begins.
“Our study cannot indicate this”, said first author Dr. Hikaru Takeuchi to Medical News Today. It also does not track whether such education continued for participants throughout the study period, and “[p]articipation in adult education is only evaluated at baseline,” Dr. Takeuchi noted.
Senior lecturer in cognitive epidemiology and dementia at Brighton and Sussex Medical…
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