The Role of Socioeconomic Status in Basic Education for Illiterate Adults

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundThe role of education is a well established protective factor regarding dementia but not much is known as to the effect of literacy acquisition in adults. Therefore, our study aims to determine whether adults enrolled in late‐life literacy programs will improve memory and cognitive reserve and the role of socioeconomic status in learning.Method108 illiterate adults were enrolled and 77 completed the assessments. For SES, only participants living in Belo Horizonte with a verifiable address were included (68). The intervention group had 34 participants that received intensive literacy training, while the 34 controls attended regular classes for six months. SES was based on the Quality of Urban Living Index (QULI) of 2016 created by the municipal council and the Municipal Human Development Index (MHDI) of 2010 made by Atlas Brasil. The instruments used were Rodrigues et al, 2015 list of words and pseudowords to assess reading and Beta III matrix reasoning for non‐verbal reasoning.ResultParticipants lived in 14 different regions of Belo Horizonte, 32 in areas with a low QULI and 36 within a high QULI. When using the HDI classification, 29 had medium MHDI, 25 had high MHDI and 14 very‐high MHDI. In regards to reading, people from low QULI areas went from reading on average 20.86 to 22.26 words and 4.21 to 5.13 pseudowords. Participants from high QULI regions went from an average of 22.14 to 25.08 words and 5.56 pseudowords to 6.86. One‐way ANOVA showed a significant effect of MHDI on post‐test Beta III scores, F (2, 37.5) = 3.64, p = 0.03. Post Hoc comparisons using Games‐Howell test indicated that the average score in high MHDI (M = 6.24, SD = 2.26) were significantly better than those with medium MHDI (M = 4.63, SD = 2.14), but no significant difference was found between high and very high or very high to medium MHDI.ConclusionParticipants from all groups improved during the assessments. However, it was also possible to see that SES has a role to play in the extent of this improvement.