The level of education influences the risk of developing the disease. However, if women were less educated in the last century, this is changing.
- Education level is linked to the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease
- This parameter explains why women born before 1940 are more affected than men.
- With the generalization of studies for women, this gap between men and women for the risk of Alzheimer’s will narrow in the future.
An elderly woman is twice as likely to be affected by Alzheimer’s disease, compared to a man. Several hypotheses have been put forward to explain this difference: the higher life expectancy of women, the fact that they are more affected by depression, the drop in estrogen levels at menopause, etc. A Franco-British research team worked on another risk factor: the level of education.
Less and less significant differences
In The Lancet, they show how a low level of education increases the risk of developing the disease. Scientists point out that the very old, and therefore particularly at risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, are those born between 1920 and 1940. However, at that time, women were less educated than men. They confirmed this hypothesis through work carried out with two cohorts of patients. Three age categories were taken into account: people born between 1930 and 1938, those born between 1939 and 1945 as well as a group born between 1946 and 1955. They note that the differences in Alzheimer’s risk between men and women decrease over the years. According to them, the extension of the duration of higher education for women is the cause. Especially since the results show that women have better results on memory tests.
Studies, a protection against the disease?
In 2014, a Inserm team already noted the impact of the level of education on the risk of developing the disease. They constituted a cohort of 442 patients with different levels of education. Among the most educated people, the first symptoms of cognitive decline appear between 15 and 16 years before diagnosis, compared to seven years for the least educated people. People with higher degrees generally have a long asymptomatic period: the cognitive decline is very slight, and has no impact on daily life. “In people who have not studied, the cognitive symptoms are more marked from the outset and the repercussions on daily life are immediate, adds Helene Amieva, co-author of the study. The first phase of decline without functional repercussions seems not to exist.”
What is the link between level of education and risk of Alzheimer’s?
According to her, the fact of having studied stimulates our intellectual capacities, at this age, it creates a “rcognitive reserve” and makes it possible to mobilize the neural networks that will compensate for brain damage. “Imaging data clearly show that the volume of gray matter is greater in people who have studied than in those who have not. This difference corresponds to more neurons, and more synaptic connections.” This additional endowment allows the brain to adapt more to the consequences of cognitive decline.
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