Educational attainment and socioeconomic status of patients with autopsy-confirmed Alzheimer disease

To determine whether patients with autopsy-confirmed Alzheimer disease (AD) have different educational attainment and socioeconomic status than subjects without neurodegenerative disease.

Comparison of 2 groups of autopsied patients. Information on education and occupation was obtained by telephone interview of relatives conducted post mortem.

One hundred fifteen patients enrolled in the University of Western Ontario Dementia Study with dementia and fulfilling diagnostic criteria of AD at autopsy were compared with 142 patients 65 years or older without dementia who died in the hospital and in whom autopsy did not show neurodegenerative disease.

Highest education level attained, years of education, occupation, and socioeconomic and income levels. All results were adjusted for sex, age at time of death, and year of birth.

There were no statistically significant differences in education, occupation, or socioeconomic and income levels between the groups.

There is no evidence that educational attainment is different in patients with AD than in subjects who die in the hospital from other diseases. These results indicate that education does not protect against advanced AD.