Own and parental schooling, gender, and cognitive perfornce based on the Harmonized Cognitive Assessment Protocol (HCAP) among older Chilean adults

ObjectivesThis study aimed to investigate associations of own and parental schooling with cognitive perfornce measured using the Harmonized Cognitive Assessment Protocol (HCAP) in Chile, a context distinct from previous studies using the HCAP.MethodsUsing Chile-Cog HCAP data linked to the Chilean Social Protection Longitudinal Survey, we used multivariate-adjusted regressions for individuals aged ≥60 to estite associations between own and parental schooling and global HCAP and doin-specific scores, and examined gender differences (n = 1,791).ResultsOwn schooling, with basic covariates, is associated with 40% of the variance in global HCAP scores. Less-than-priry versus lower-secondary schooling is associated with lower global HCAP scores and with lower orientation, memory, executive function, language, and visuospatial doin scores. Postsecondary versus lower-secondary schooling is associated with higher global and doin-specific scores: orientation, memory, executive function, language, and visuospatial. Including parental schooling yields lower estites for own schooling, and ternal completion of priry schooling or above is associated with higher global scores than less-than-priry schooling. Being fele is not significantly associated with global HCAP scores, but it was positively associated with memory scores and negatively with the visuospatial scores. Interaction between own schooling and being fele suggests significantly higher scores for priry schooling for fele than le for the orientation and memory doins.DiscussionThese results reinforce the findings of earlier studies regarding the strong association of schooling with better cognition in a South American country that transitioned from a developing to a high-income country during respondents’ lifetimes.