Dementia in people who are more highly educated seems to set in later in life, but the cognitive decline is more abrupt, a new study suggests.
Each additional year of formal education delayed the accelerated memory decline associated with dementia by about two-and-a-half months, according to investigators lead by Charles B. Hall, an associate professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City.
Once the symptoms set in, however, the people in the study with more education had a rate of cognitive decline about 4% faster for each additional year of schooling, researchers found. The study is reported in the Oct. 23 issue of Neurology.
