Biosocial and Demographic Determinants of Beneficial Trends in Older Adult Cognition in the U.S. and UK: A Decomposition Analysis

Cayley Ryan-Claytor, Pennsylvania State University
Liying Luo, Penn State

The United States and United Kingdom are both facing rapidly aging populations, leading to increased concerns about the burden of dementia and other age-related cognitive disorders. The newest cohorts entering older adulthood bring a far greater slate of health-protective socioeconomic resources than their predecessors, largely due to the timing of higher education expansion in both countries. However, despite these SES advantages, older adults in both countries are also facing increasingly higher rates of chronic health conditions that may adversely affect cognitive functioning, including cardiovascular conditions, diabetes, and psychological conditions. In sum, while population aging and rising rates of chronic disease may have detrimental impacts on older adult cognition at the population level, the socioeconomic composition of the older adult populations in both the U.S. and U.K. has markedly changed for the better, meaning that older adults bring more cognitively protective resources with them as they age. In this study, we use decomposition methods to investigate the contributions of trends in three areas to changes in older adult cognition in the U.S. and U.K. over the past two decades: (1) population aging (2) changing socioeconomic composition of the older adult population and (3) rises in chronic disease prevalence.

Keywords: Decomposition analysis, Population Ageing, Health and Morbidity, Comparative methods

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