IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cen/wpaper/25-11.html

Geographic Disparities in Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementia Mortality in the US: Comparing Impacts of Place of Birth and Place of Residence

Author

Listed:
  • Jason Fletcher
  • Katie Jajtner
  • Jinho Kim

Abstract

Objective: Building on the hypothesis that early-life exposures might influence the onset of Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementia (ADRD), this study delves into geographic variations in ADRD mortality in the US. By considering both state of residence and state of birth, we aim to discern the comparative significance of these geospatial factors. Methods: We conducted a secondary data analysis of the National Longitudinal Mortality Study (NLMS), that has 3.5 million records from 1973-2011 and over 0.5 million deaths. We focused on individuals born in or before 1930, tracked in NLMS cohorts from 1979-2000. Employing multi-level logistic regression, with individuals nested within states of residence and/or states of birth, we assessed the role of geographical factors in ADRD mortality variation. Results: We found that both state of birth and state of residence account for a modest portion of ADRD mortality variation. Specifically, state of residence explains 1.19% of the total variation in ADRD mortality, whereas state of birth explains only 0.6%. When combined, both state of residence and state of birth account for only 1.05% of the variation, suggesting state of residence could matter more in ADRD mortality outcomes. Conclusion: Findings of this study suggest that state of residence explains more variation in ADRD mortality than state of birth. These results indicate that factors in later life may present more impactful intervention points for curbing ADRD mortality. While early-life environmental exposures remain relevant, their role as primary determinants of ADRD in later life appears to be less pronounced in this study.

Suggested Citation

  • Jason Fletcher & Katie Jajtner & Jinho Kim, 2025. "Geographic Disparities in Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementia Mortality in the US: Comparing Impacts of Place of Birth and Place of Residence," Working Papers 25-11, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    • Handle: RePEc:cen:wpaper:25-11
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www2.census.gov/library/working-papers/2025/adrm/ces/CES-WP-25-11.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2025
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Melvin Stephens Jr. & Dou-Yan Yang, 2014. "Compulsory Education and the Benefits of Schooling," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(6), pages 1777-1792, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Matthew J. Hill, 2014. "Easterlin revisted: Relative income and the baby boom," Economics Working Papers 1453, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    2. Adriana Lleras-Muney & Allison Shertzer, 2015. "Did the Americanization Movement Succeed? An Evaluation of the Effect of English-Only and Compulsory Schooling Laws on Immigrants," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 7(3), pages 258-290, August.
    3. Ji Liu, 2024. "Education legislations that equalize: a study of compulsory schooling law reforms in post-WWII United States," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-12, December.
    4. Cygan-Rehm, Kamila, 2018. "Is additional schooling worthless? Revising the zero returns to compulsory schooling in Germany," VfS Annual Conference 2018 (Freiburg, Breisgau): Digital Economy 181528, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    5. Albarrán, Pedro & Hidalgo-Hidalgo, Marisa & Iturbe-Ormaetxe, Iñigo, 2020. "Education and adult health: Is there a causal effect?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 249(C).
    6. Pedro Albarran Pérez & Marisa Hidalgo Hidalgo & Iñigo Iturbe-Ormaetxe Kortajarene, 2017. "Schooling and adult health: Can education overcome bad early-life conditions?," Working Papers. Serie AD 2017-09, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas, S.A. (Ivie).
    7. Vikesh Amin & Jere R. Behrman & Jason M. Fletcher & Carlos A. Flores & Alfonso Flores-Lagunes & Hans-Peter Kohler, 2022. "Does Schooling Improve Cognitive Abilities at Older Ages: Causal Evidence from Nonparametric Bounds," PIER Working Paper Archive 22-016, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania.
    8. Tumen, Semih, 2019. "Refugees and ‘native flight’ from public to private schools," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 181(C), pages 154-159.
    9. Cobb-Clark, Deborah A. & Dahmann, Sarah C. & Kamhöfer, Daniel A. & Schildberg-Hörisch, Hannah, 2025. "Schooling and Self-Control," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 237(C).
    10. Cobb-Clark, Deborah A. & Dahmann, Sarah Christina & Kamhöfer, Daniel A. & Schildberg-Hörisch, Hannah, 2022. "The determinants of population self-control," DICE Discussion Papers 385, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE).
    11. Yannay Shanan, 2023. "The effect of compulsory schooling laws and child labor restrictions on fertility: evidence from the early twentieth century," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 36(1), pages 321-358, January.
    12. Mathias Huebener, 2017. "Intergenerational Effects of Education on Risky Health Behaviours and Long-Term Health," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1709, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    13. Patrinos, Harry Anthony & Rivera-Olvera, Angelica, 2026. "The Returns to Education in Arkansas: Evidence from the 1987 Compulsory Education Law," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1703, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    14. Christoph Kronenberg, 2021. "New(spaper) evidence of a reduction in suicide mentions during the 19th century US gold rush," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(10), pages 2582-2594, September.
    15. Luna Bellani & Marisa Hidalgo-Hidalgo, 2023. "Educate Some to Represent Many? Education and Female Political Representation in Europe," Working Papers 23.12, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Department of Economics.
    16. Abdurrahman Aydemir & Murat G. Kirdar, 2017. "Low Wage Returns to Schooling in a Developing Country: Evidence from a Major Policy Reform in Turkey," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 79(6), pages 1046-1086, December.
    17. Debdeep Chattopadhyay, 2023. "Did the Massachusetts Health Reform Program increase self-employment?," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 65(3), pages 1309-1344, September.
    18. Costa, Rui & Machin, Stephen, 2016. "Crime, compulsory schooling laws and educationAuthor-Name: Bell, Brian," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 214-226.
    19. Meta Brown & John Grigsby & Wilbert van der Klaauw & Jaya Wen & Basit Zafar, 2016. "Financial Education and the Debt Behavior of the Young," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 29(9), pages 2490-2522.
    20. Pedro Albarrán & Marisa Hidalgo-Hidalgo & Iñigo Iturbe-Ormaetxe, 2022. "On the identification of the effect of education on health: a comment on Fonseca et al. (2020)," SERIEs: Journal of the Spanish Economic Association, Springer;Spanish Economic Association, vol. 13(4), pages 649-661, December.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cen:wpaper:25-11. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Dawn Anderson (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cesgvus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.