Intergenerational education and late-life cognitive performance: A comparison between rural Mexico and South Africa

Educational trajectories across the lifecourse have been associated with late-life cognitive outcomes; however, studies in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are limited. This study examines the relationship between intergenerational educational mobility and cognitive performance among older adults living in rural areas of Mexico and South Africa. Data from the Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS), the Health and Aging in Africa: Longitudinal Studies of an INDEPTH community in South Africa (HAALSI), and their harmonized cognitive aging ancillary studies, Mex-Cog and HAALSI-Dementia, were analyzed using linear regression models to assess cognitive performance (i.e., global cognition, executive function, language, memory, and orientation domains) based on educational mobility. The study included 482 Mex-Cog rural participants and 607 HAALSI-Dementia participants. Mex-Cog rural participants were younger, had slightly more schooling, and were more likely than HAALSI-Dementia participants to have formal education in both generations. In study-stratified models, upward educational mobility and formal education in both generations were positively associated with cognitive performance across domains relative to neither generation having formal education; however, upwardly mobile participants generally had lower cognitive scores than those with formal education in both generations. Our findings underscore the importance of considering lifecourse and contextual social determinants - including historical reforms, education quality, and rural-urban differences - when evaluating the associations between education and cognitive aging in low- and middle-income countries.