Risks of poor performance in elementary school

School performance at age 10 was a dominant risk factor for later diagnosis of dementia in a long-running Swedish study, which subsequent education and high-complexity jobs in adulthood could not fully overcome, a researcher said here.

Using data from a cohort study that ran for more than 90 years, Serhiy Dekhtyar, PhD, and colleagues from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, found that participants with low grades at age 10 were at 21% higher risk for an eventual dementia diagnosis (P<0.05).

Although, as in previous studies, educational attainment and "data-complex" employment reduced the risk of late-life dementia, school grades at age 10 remained a significant predictive factor for eventual dementia even when these other factors were accounted for, according to data Dekhtyar presented at an Alzheimer's Association International Conference press briefing.

"It seems education and occupational complexity could not compensate for the effect of low baseline abilities -- risk was similar in subjects with low grades irrespective of occupation or education," Dekhtyar said.

He and colleagues drew on data from the Uppsala Birth Cohort study, which enrolled 7,574 newborns from 1915 to 1929 and then followed them through 2008....

But the strongest association was for participants who were in the top four quintiles of school grades plus higher education and data-complex jobs, with an HR 0.61 for dementia (P<0.0001).

Dekhtyar told MedPage Today that there did not seem to be a special benefit to being in the top quintile of age-10 school grades compared to those in the middle. "What really punishes you is to be at the bottom," he said...

Craft said the study demonstrates "the importance of education early in life -- making sure our children have access to high quality cognitive stimulation and education," and that "the stage is set for Alzheimer's years and years before it appears."

See:  http://www.medpagetoday.com/MeetingCoverage/AAIC/52674

Alzheimer's Association International Conference

Dekhtyar, S, et al "A life-course study of cognitive reserve in dementia. Dementia incidence in inpatient registers and MMSE test scores in a clinical study in Sweden" AAIC 2015; Abstract 146.