Educational Differences in Life Span Variation in Dementia Incidence

Objective: To examine educational differences in life span variation in dementia in the United States and
assess the role of adult income in explaining the variation within educational levels.
Method: We use the Health and Retirement Study (2000-2014) and techniques of microsimulation and
bootstrap to estimate the age distribution of dementia incidence for major education groups, controlling
and not controlling for adult income.
Hypotheses: We anticipate that life span variation in dementia incidence will be substantially larger
among less educated persons than among highly educated persons. Part of the reason for the larger
educational variation among less educated persons may reflect both economic vulnerability in later
adulthood (a large frail tail) and economic success (a smaller but visible robust tail). Among well
educated people, we expect to see a compression of dementia reflecting a very small frail tail and the
postponement of dementia until ages proximate to death