Childhood Racial Segregation in School Tied to Late-Life Cognitive Outcomes
TUESDAY, Jan. 7, 2025 -- Childhood exposure to school segregation is associated with worse late-life cognitive outcomes among older Black adults, according to a study published online Jan. 3 in JAMA Network Open.
Zhuoer Lin, Ph.D., from University of Illinois Chicago, and colleagues investigated the association between childhood contextual exposure to school racial segregation and cognitive outcomes in later life. The analysis included data from older U.S. adults participating in the Health and Retirement Study (3,566 Black and 17,555 White participants).
The researchers found that participants exposed to high versus low segregation showed lower cognitive scores (13.6 versus 14.5) and a higher prevalence of cognitive impairment (37.0 versus 28.0 percent) and dementia (14.1 versus 9.3 percent). There was a significant negative association between school segregation and later-life cognitive outcomes among Black participants, but not among White participants, in an adjusted analysis. Across the life course, potential mediators included educational attainment (57.6 to 72.6 percent of the association), yet the findings were significant among Black participants for all outcomes. When accounting for all mediators and covariates, Black participants exposed to high segregation showed significantly lower cognitive scores (coefficient, −0.26) and a higher likelihood of cognitive impairment (adjusted odds ratio, 1.35) and dementia (adjusted odds ratio, 1.26).
"These findings suggest that strengthened efforts to reduce school racial segregation could have lasting benefits for cognitive health and advance racial equity, particularly given the enduring segregation of schools as a prominent form of structural racism in the United States," the authors write.
Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.
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