Cognitive Aging Across National Contexts: Evidence from the Harmonized Cognitive Assessment Protocols

Chair(s)

• 

  Lindsay Kobayashi, PhD

  Assistant Professor
  Epidemiology
  University of Michigan
  Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States

Co-Chair(s)

• 

  Alden Gross, PhD

  Associate professor
  Department of Epidemiology
  Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
  Baltimore, Maryland, United States

Discussant(s)

• KL

  Kenneth Langa, MD-PhD

  Professor
  Internal Medicine
  University of Michigan
  Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States

Individual Symposium Abstract First Author(s)

• YZ

  Yuan Zhang, PhD

  Postdoctoral scholar
  Carolina Population Center
  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  CHAPEL HILL, North Carolina, United States
• TC

  Tsai-Chin Cho, MSc

  Doctoral student
  Department of Epidemiology
  University of Michigan School of Public Health
  Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States
• 

  Emma Nichols, MPH

  PhD Candidate
  Epidemiology
  Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
  Baltimore, Maryland, United States
• AW

  Ashly Westrick, PhD

  Postdoctoral Research Fellow
  Epidemiology
  University of Michigan
  Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States

The global burden of dementia is rapidly rising and shifting to low- and middle-income countries. The triangulation of evidence across country contexts is essential for unlocking the causes of dementia and reducing its global burden. The Harmonized Cognitive Assessment Protocol (HCAP) is a recent innovation administered in the US Health and Retirement Study and several of its International Partner Studies. For the very first time, these HCAPs provide high-quality data for cross-national comparisons of later-life cognitive function that are sensitive to linguistic, cultural, and educational differences across diverse country contexts. However, despite the common HCAP protocols, human cognitive function does not lend itself to direct comparison across diverse populations without careful consideration of necessary test adaptations. This symposium presents results from analyses of the HCAP data in the US, England, Mexico, South Africa, China, and India, highlighting cross-national differences in later-life cognition identified using the HCAP data, and presenting key methodological concerns for cross-national comparisons of cognitive aging. First, Zhang will present findings comparing education gradients in later-life cognitive function across countries. Next, Cho will present longitudinal data comparing the relationships between short-term changes in household wealth in later-life and subsequent cognitive function across countries. Third, Avila-Rieger will present findings comparing sex/gender disparities in later-life cognitive function in the US and India and how they differ by education. Finally, Nichols will conclude the session by discussing differences in the measurement of cognition for the assessment of dementia across countries and implications for data interpretation and the design of future instruments.

Presentations:

• 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM ET

  Education Gradients in Later-life Cognitive Function Across Low-, Middle-, and High-Income Countries
  

  Individual Symposium Abstract First Author: Yuan S. Zhang, PhD – University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM ET

  Short-Term Wealth Changes and Subsequent Cognitive Health Among Older Adults in China, England, Mexico, and the US
  

  Individual Symposium Abstract First Author: Tsai-Chin Cho, MSc – University of Michigan School of Public Health
• 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM ET

  Differences in the Measurement of Cognition for the Assessment of Dementia Across Geographic Contexts
  

  Individual Symposium Abstract First Author: Emma Nichols, MPH – Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
• 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM ET

  Cross-National Variability in Sex/Gender Differences and Later-Life Memory: India and the United States
  

  Individual Symposium Abstract First Author: Ashly C. Westrick, PhD – University of Michigan