Demographics, education likely influence age-related cognition across cultures

Demographics, education likely influence age-related cognition across cultures


August 06, 2025

2 min read

Key takeaways:

  • There are clear cultural variations in age-related cognitive decline.
  • Age-related cognitive decline also differs among the sexes, but vary between cultures.

In examining longitudinal cohorts for age-related cognitive decline among older adults in the United States and Korea, demographics and education levels likely influence outcomes stratified by age and sex, according to a presenter.

“Various factors among these demographic factors such as age, education and sex are especially important in neuropsychological assessment, since demographic differences can affect how we interpret test results, even within the same cultural group,” Minji Song, PhD, a postdoctoral associate from the Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, said during the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference.



NEURO0725_AAIC_Song_Graphic_01

Data were derived from Song M, et al. Cultural effects of demographic factors on cognitive function: Findings from U.S. and Korea. Presented at: Alzheimer’s Association International Conference; July 27-31, 2025; Toronto.

Song and colleagues sought to compare the influence of demographics on cognitive function among middle-aged and older adults from the United States and Korea based on data from both the seminal Framingham Heart Study (FHS) as well as the Korean Genome and Epidemiology Study – Cardiovascular Disease Association Study – Cognitive Aging (KoGES-CAVAS-CA).

KoGES-CAVAS-CA comprises a series of population-based studies, launched in 2001 by the Korean National Institute of Health, in which researchers investigated the effects of heart disease and cognitive aging in more than 30,000 individuals aged 55 to 80 years.

For the sake of comparison, the researchers selected 1,228 FHS enrollees (mean age, 68.3 years; 55.5% women; 56.4% bachelor’s degree or higher) and 2,781 KoGES enrollees (mean age, 67.4 years; 63.1% women; 12.4% bachelor’s degree or higher) across neuropsychological testing periods of 2017-2023 and 2019-2022, respectively.

Testing for comparison of both sets of participants assessed domains such as verbal and logical memory recall (Wechsler Memory Scale, Seoul Verbal Learning Test), language (Boston Naming Test) and verbal fluency, visuospatial function (Hooper and Rey test), as well as attention and executive function (Digit Span Test, Trail Making Test, Digit Symbol Coding, Stroop Word Test, Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale).

“To align the two datasets, we excluded some tests with no comparable tests or substantial missing data,” Song said. “We then reorganized the domains to match our core studies and derived cognitive domain scores accordingly.”

According to results, for FHS, older age was associated with lower cognitive functioning in memory and visuospatial domains, with a significant effect of lower function for attention/executive domains across all education levels seen most acutely for those with less than a high-school education.

Both groups, Song noted, demonstrated better performance with increasing education level, with greater positive impact in FHS.

When analyzing the interaction of age and country of origin on memory domains, Song and colleagues reported a decline from age 55 to 80 years among participants of both studies, but with a sharper descent among KoGES participants.

The researchers also reported that, while age-related decline was more pronounced in FHS, in KoGES, the decline was observed in attention and executive function.

Further, when examining the interaction between sex and country on memory and visuospatial function, data show a significant interaction suggesting the difference between sexes was greater in KoGES than FHS, specifically that women demonstrated superior memory performance compared with men. Conversely women performed worse vs. men in the FHS language domain.

This analysis indicated that cognitive performance, subdivided by sex, may be shaped by more than just biology, Song said, and that demographic influence on cognition may vary cross culturally.

“This suggests that cognitive aging trajectories may be culture specific and that using the same models across populations may not be appropriate,” she said. “These findings underscore the importance of considering demographic disparities when conducting cognitive research, particularly in global or multicultural studies.”

For more information:

Minji Song, PhD, can be reached at neurology@healio.com.



Source link

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *