A recent study conducted by researchers from Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan, and published in Frontiers in Ageing Neuroscience has unveiled a potential link between adult education and a reduced risk of dementia, as well as improved cognitive functions in middle-aged and elderly individuals.
Dr. Hikaru Takeuchi, the study’s lead author, highlighted the key findings, stating that participation in adult education classes was associated with a 19% lower risk of developing dementia within a five-year timeframe. Moreover, the study indicated that adult education contributed to better preservation of nonverbal reasoning skills as individuals aged.
The research, co-authored by Dr. Ryuta Kawashima, utilised data from the UK Biobank, a comprehensive database encompassing genetic, health, and medical information from nearly 500,000 British volunteers. The study focused on 282,421 participants aged 40 to 69 who had enrolled between 2006 and 2010. These individuals were followed for an average of seven years.
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Participants were assigned a “polygenic risk score” for dementia based on their genetic makeup, considering 133 specific single-locus polymorphisms (SNPs) in their DNA. Cognitive and psychological assessments were conducted during the enrollment and subsequent assessments between 2014 and 2018. These assessments included tests for fluid intelligence, visuospatial memory, and reaction time.
The results of the study revealed that those individuals who were engaged in adult education programs at the time of enrollment exhibited a 19% reduced risk of developing dementia compared to those who were not enrolled in such programs. Importantly, this reduction in risk was consistent across participants of various racial backgrounds and remained significant even when individuals with a history of conditions such as diabetes, hyperlipidemia, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, or mental illness were excluded from the analysis. This suggests that the lower risk of dementia associated with adult education was not solely due to the impact of these comorbidities preventing individuals from participating in educational activities.
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Furthermore, the study demonstrated that participants involved in adult education classes displayed better maintenance of their fluid intelligence and performed more effectively in tasks requiring nonverbal reasoning compared to their peers who did not participate in adult education. However, adult education did not seem to have a significant impact on the preservation of visuospatial memory.
Dr. Kawashima noted that while their findings suggest a potential link between intellectual activities and a healthier nervous system, their study was observational and longitudinal, and thus, they cannot conclusively establish a direct causal relationship between adult education and reduced dementia risk. He suggested that a randomised clinical trial should be conducted to provide more concrete evidence of any protective effects of adult education. Such a trial could involve one group participating in adult education classes while another group engages in an equivalent social interaction without the educational component as a control intervention.
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