Early‐life education attainment and cognitive impairment in older adults: the moderating role of neighborhood educational facilities

Abstract INTRODUCTION How late‐life exposure to neighborhood educational facilities associated with cognitive function in older adults is far from understood. METHODS We diagnosed the cognitive functions of 8884 older adults in Shanghai and Wuhan and portrayed their 15‐min walkable neighborhoods. Stratified modeling was used to determine whether the association between early‐life education attainment and cognitive impairment varied by exposure to late‐life educational facilities. RESULTS Living in neighborhoods with a higher proportion of university campus areas, at least one senior college, or at least four kindergartens was associated with better global and domain‐specific cognition (memory, visuospatial function, executive function, and language). The adverse association between low early‐life formal education years and cognitive impairment in older adults was attenuated in those living in the neighborhoods with universities and senior colleges in late life. DISCUSSION Neighborhoods with adequate educational facilities may help mitigate the adverse effect of low early‐life formal education years on the cognitive function in older adults.