Timing of school desegregation experience and late‐life cognition in the Study of Healthy Aging in African Americans (STAR) cohort

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundPrior studies suggest segregated school experiences are associated with poorer late‐life cognition among African Americans. However, less is known about how the timing of school desegregation in the individual’s lifecourse or historically is associated with cognition for younger cohorts.MethodThe Study of Healthy Aging in African Americans (STAR) is a cohort of community‐dwelling Kaiser Permanente members residing in the San Francisco Bay area and Sacramento valley. The study has enrolled 722 African Americans (half ages 50‐64, half 65+) and aims to understand lifecourse processes that contribute to cognitive aging disparities. Experiences of segregation were self‐reported and modeled three ways: 1) having attended only segregated schools vs. only integrated; 2) by life stage when first transitioned to a desegregated school (i.e. 1st‐6th, 7th‐9th or 10th‐12th grades); and 3) the historical timing of school desegregation relative to the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education decision mandating school integration (many districts were reluctant to integrate in a timely manner). Executive function, semantic memory and verbal memory measured with the Spanish and English Neuropsychological Assessment Scales (SENAS) were z‐standardized and averaged for overall cognition. Linear regression was used for analysis; models controlled for age, gender, and education.ResultParticipant mean age was 68 (8.7) and 69% were female. Compared with participants who only attended integrated schools (ref.; n=438), those who only attended segregated schools (n=145) had significantly lower overall cognition, executive function and semantic memory (see table). Those who transitioned from segregated to integrated schools between 7th and 9th grade (n=51) had worse executive function and semantic memory than those who only attended integrated schools; we did not observe significant associations for those who transitioned to integrated schools in 1st‐6th grades (n=44), or 10th‐12th grades (n=43). We observed no differences in cognition by historical timing of desegregation.ConclusionOlder African Americans who attended only segregated schools or experienced desegregation in 7th‐9th grades had worse later‐life cognitive test scores than those who attended racially integrated schools. Our findings suggest that only attending segregated schools and the timing of school desegregation in the lifecourse may have implications for understanding cognitive aging among African Americans.