scholarly journals The Effects of Education on Cognition in Older Age: Evidence from Genotyped Siblings

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Fletcher ◽  
Michael Topping ◽  
Fengyi Zheng ◽  
Qiongshi Lu
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Educational Attainment ◽  
College Graduates ◽  
Family Background ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Older Age ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Genetic Predictors ◽  
Polygenic Scores

A growing literature has sought to tie educational attainment with later-life cognition and Alzheimer's disease outcomes. This paper leverages sibling comparisons in educational attainment as well as genetic predictors (polygenic scores) for cognition, educational attainment, and Alzheimer's disease to estimate effects of educational attainment on cognition in older age in the United Kingdom. We find that the effects of education on cognition are confounded by family background factors (~40%) and by genetics (<10%). After adjustments, we continue to find large effects of education. College graduates have cognition scores that are approximately 0.75 SD higher than those who report no credentials. We also find evidence that educational effects on cognition are smaller for those with high polygenic scores for Alzheimer's disease.

scholarly journals Education, intelligence and Alzheimer’s disease: Evidence from a multivariable two-sample Mendelian randomization study

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma L Anderson ◽  
Laura D Howe ◽  
Kaitlin H Wade ◽  
Yoav Ben-Shlomo ◽  
W. David Hill ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Mendelian Randomization ◽  
Causal Effect ◽  
Univariate Analysis ◽  
Causal Effects ◽  
Training Interventions ◽  
Bidirectional Relationship ◽  
Years Of Schooling

AbstractObjectivesTo examine whether educational attainment and intelligence have causal effects on risk of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), independently of each other.DesignTwo-sample univariable and multivariable Mendelian Randomization (MR) to estimate the causal effects of education on intelligence and vice versa, and the total and independent causal effects of both education and intelligence on risk of AD.Participants17,008 AD cases and 37,154 controls from the International Genomics of Alzheimer’s Project (IGAP) consortiumMain outcome measureOdds ratio of AD per standardised deviation increase in years of schooling and intelligenceResultsThere was strong evidence of a causal, bidirectional relationship between intelligence and educational attainment, with the magnitude of effect being similar in both directions. Similar overall effects were observed for both educational attainment and intelligence on AD risk in the univariable MR analysis; with each SD increase in years of schooling and intelligence, odds of AD were, on average, 37% (95% CI: 23% to 49%) and 35% (95% CI: 25% to 43%) lower, respectively. There was little evidence from the multivariable MR analysis that educational attainment affected AD risk once intelligence was taken into account, but intelligence affected AD risk independently of educational attainment to a similar magnitude observed in the univariate analysis.ConclusionsThere is robust evidence for an independent, causal effect of intelligence in lowering AD risk, potentially supporting a role for cognitive training interventions to improve aspects of intelligence. However, given the observed causal effect of educational attainment on intelligence, there may also be support for policies aimed at increasing length of schooling to lower incidence of AD.

Spiritual Factors in the Experience of Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias

2015 ◽  
pp. 230-253
Author(s):  
Elizabeth MacKinlay ◽  
Corinne Trevitt
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Cognitive Decline ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Aged Care ◽  
Residential Aged Care ◽  
Meaningful Life ◽  
Diagnosis Of Dementia ◽  
The Face

Alzheimer's disease and other dementias raise important questions of personhood and connection for those affected. Finding meaning in the face of dementia is one of the most challenging aspects of dementia; spiritual reminiscence is a way of connecting with those with dementia when their cognitive decline seems to preclude them from participating in a meaningful life. In this chapter a context for spirituality in later life is given through description of the spiritual tasks and process of ageing. This leads to presentation of work based on a mixed methods study of 113 people in residential aged care with a diagnosis of dementia who participated in either six or 24 weeks of weekly sessions of guided spiritual reminiscence (MacKinlay & Trevitt, 2012). Relationship was found to be almost synonymous with meaning for these people. Other important themes identified were vulnerability and transcendence, wisdom, hope, despair, and response to meaning.

Spiritual Factors in the Experience of Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias

2020 ◽  
pp. 334-357
Author(s):  
Elizabeth MacKinlay ◽  
Corinne Trevitt
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Cognitive Decline ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Aged Care ◽  
Residential Aged Care ◽  
Meaningful Life ◽  
Diagnosis Of Dementia ◽  
The Face

Alzheimer's disease and other dementias raise important questions of personhood and connection for those affected. Finding meaning in the face of dementia is one of the most challenging aspects of dementia; spiritual reminiscence is a way of connecting with those with dementia when their cognitive decline seems to preclude them from participating in a meaningful life. In this chapter a context for spirituality in later life is given through description of the spiritual tasks and process of ageing. This leads to presentation of work based on a mixed methods study of 113 people in residential aged care with a diagnosis of dementia who participated in either six or 24 weeks of weekly sessions of guided spiritual reminiscence (MacKinlay & Trevitt, 2012). Relationship was found to be almost synonymous with meaning for these people. Other important themes identified were vulnerability and transcendence, wisdom, hope, despair, and response to meaning.

The management of dementia

2012 ◽  
pp. 411-419
Author(s):  
John-Paul Taylor ◽  
Simon Fleminger
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Intellectual Disability ◽  
Clinical Syndrome ◽  
Older Age ◽  
Age Group ◽  
Cerebral Damage ◽  
Memory Problems ◽  
The One

The term dementia is used in two different ways. First there are the dementias. These are diseases that cause progressive and diffuse cerebral damage, of which Alzheimer's disease is the most common. Second, dementia can be used to refer to a clinical syndrome. Thus dementia is ‘an acquired global impairment of intellect, memory, and personality, but without impairment of consciousness’. For clinicians this is the preferred usage, and the one adopted in this chapter. It demands that the cause of the dementia is explored, and makes no comment on the likely prognosis. This chapter will focus on the management of dementia regardless of the cause; however given the burden of dementia in older age, the discussion will be invariably, but not exclusively, slanted towards the management of dementia in this age group. Aspects of management specific to individual diseases which produce dementia will be avoided. In addition, a discourse on the management of cognitive and memory problems is excluded as these are described elsewhere (see Chapters 2.5.4 and 6.2.7). Patients who suffer the dementia before 18 years of age will, by and large, not be included; their needs are often best met by services provided for people with intellectual disability.

scholarly journals Sex differences in genetic predictors of resilience to Alzheimer’s disease

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (S2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Logan Dumitrescu ◽  
Emily R. Mahoney ◽  
Shubhabrata Mukherjee ◽  
Michael L. Lee ◽  
William S. Bush ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Sex Differences ◽  
Genetic Predictors

scholarly journals Evidence of a Causal Association Between Cancer and Alzheimer’s Disease: a Mendelian Randomization Analysis

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sahba Seddighi ◽  
Alexander L. Houck ◽  
James B. Rowe ◽  
Paul D. P. Pharoah
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Mendelian Randomization ◽  
Observational Evidence ◽  
Inverse Association ◽  
Causal Association ◽  
Lower Odds ◽  
Genetic Predictors ◽  
Log Odds ◽  
Randomization Analysis

Abstract While limited observational evidence suggests that cancer survivors have a decreased risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and vice versa, it is not clear whether this relationship is causal. Using a Mendelian randomization approach that provides evidence of causality, we found that genetically predicted lung cancer (OR 0.91, 95% CI 0.84–0.99, p = 0.019), leukemia (OR 0.98, 95% CI 0.96–0.995, p = 0.012), and breast cancer (OR 0.94, 95% CI 0.89–0.99, p = 0.028) were associated with 9.0%, 2.4%, and 5.9% lower odds of AD, respectively, per 1-unit higher log odds of cancer. When genetic predictors of all cancers were pooled, cancer was associated with 2.5% lower odds of AD (OR 0.98, 95% CI 0.96–0.988, p = 0.00027) per 1-unit higher log odds of cancer. Finally, genetically predicted smoking-related cancers showed a more robust inverse association with AD than non-smoking related cancers (OR 0.95, 95% CI 0.92–0.98, p = 0.0026, vs. OR 0.98, 95% CI 0.97–0.995, p = 0.0091).

Identification of Biological Pathways to Alzheimer's Disease Using Polygenic Scores

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (S1) ◽  
pp. S166-S167
Author(s):  
J. Harrison ◽  
E. Baker ◽  
L. Hubbard ◽  
D. Linden ◽  
J. Williams ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Protein Folding ◽  
Late Onset ◽  
Cell Lineage ◽  
Biological Pathways ◽  
Risk Scores ◽  
Nucleotide Polymorphisms ◽  
Discovery Sample ◽  
Polygenic Scores

IntroductionSingle nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) contribute small increases in risk for late-onset Alzheimer's disease (LOAD). LOAD SNPs cluster around genes with similar biological functions (pathways). Polygenic risk scores (PRS) aggregate the effect of SNPs genome-wide. However, this approach has not been widely used for SNPs within specific pathways.ObjectivesWe investigated whether pathway-specific PRS were significant predictors of LOAD case/control status.MethodsWe mapped SNPs to genes within 8 pathways implicated in LOAD. For our polygenic analysis, the discovery sample comprised 13,831 LOAD cases and 29,877 controls. LOAD risk alleles for SNPs in our 8 pathways were identified at a P-value threshold of 0.5. Pathway-specific PRS were calculated in a target sample of 3332 cases and 9832 controls. The genetic data were pruned with R2 > 0.2 while retaining the SNPs most significantly associated with AD. We tested whether pathway-specific PRS were associated with LOAD using logistic regression, adjusting for age, sex, country, and principal components. We report the proportion of variance in liability explained by each pathway.ResultsThe most strongly associated pathways were the immune response (NSNPs = 9304, = 5.63 × 10−19, R2 = 0.04) and hemostasis (NSNPs = 7832, P = 5.47 × 10−7, R2 = 0.015). Regulation of endocytosis, hematopoietic cell lineage, cholesterol transport, clathrin and protein folding were also significantly associated but accounted for less than 1% of the variance. With APOE excluded, all pathways remained significant except proteasome-ubiquitin activity and protein folding.ConclusionsGenetic risk for LOAD can be split into contributions from different biological pathways. These offer a means to explore disease mechanisms and to stratify patients.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

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