Effects of chronic alcohol feeding on learning and memory in mice carrying risk mutations for Alzheimer's disease

Background: A great number of research studies has shown that high education has protective effects against dementia. However, such effects largely depend on how education is operationalized. In this study, we therefore compared various operationalization approaches of education and their impact on dementia risk based on data from a population-based study. Methods: Data were derived from the Leipzig longitudinal study of the aged (LEILA75+). We operationalized education according to different approaches used in previous studies and analyzed the impact on dementia incidence via multivariate cox regression modelling. Results: The results showed that whether education significantly protects against dementia strongly depends on the operationalization of education. Whereas the pure number of years of education showed statistically significant protective effects on dementia risk, other more complex categorical classification approaches did not. Conclusions: Findings suggest a protective effect of education on dementia risk particularly with regard to the number of years of education. The findings thus highlight that, when examining risks and protective factors of dementia, a careful consideration of the underlying definitions and operationalization approaches of such factors is required, which is also the utmost need for corresponding consensus research criteria.