title: Relating education, brain structure, and cognition: the role of cardiovascular disease risk factors.
abstract: The protective effect of education on cognitive and brain health is well established. While the direct effects of individual cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors (i.e., hypertension, smoking, diabetes, and obesity) on cerebral structure have been investigated, little is understood about the possible interaction between the protective effect of education and the deleterious effects of CVD risk factors in predicting brain ageing and cognition. Using data from the PATH Through Life study (N = 266), we investigated the protective effect of education on cerebral structure and function and tested a possible mediating role of CVD risk factors. Higher education was associated with larger regional grey/white matter volumes in the prefrontal cortex in men only. The association between education and cognition was mediated by brain volumes but only for grey matter and only in relation to information processing speed. CVD risk factors did not mediate the association between regional volumes and cognition. This study provides additional evidence in support for a protective effect of education on cerebral structures and cognition. However, it does not provide support for a mediating role of CVD risk factors in these associations.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Research on Ageing, Health and Wellbeing, The Australian National University, 62A Eggleston Road, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia.
authors.forename: Moyra E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Mortby
authors.affiliation: Centre for Research on Ageing, Health and Wellbeing, The Australian National University, 62A Eggleston Road, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Burns
authors.affiliation: Centre for Advanced Imaging, The University of Queensland, 57 Research Road, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia.
authors.forename: Andrew L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Janke
authors.affiliation: Neuropsychiatric Institute, Euroa Centre, Prince of Wales Hospital, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2031, Australia.
authors.forename: Perminder S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Sachdev
authors.affiliation: Centre for Research on Ageing, Health and Wellbeing, The Australian National University, 62A Eggleston Road, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia.
authors.forename: Kaarin J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Anstey
authors.affiliation: Centre for Research on Ageing, Health and Wellbeing, The Australian National University, 62A Eggleston Road, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia.
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Cherbuin
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D004493:Education; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D012307:Risk Factors