Adult education lowers the risk of fluid intelligence and visuospatial memory for middle-aged and older persons by 19% within five years, according to research. Researchers from Tohoku University's Institute of Development, Ageing, and Cancer in Sendai, Japan, published the study's findings in the journal Frontiers in Ageing Neuroscience.
The study’s first author, Dr Hikaru Takeuchi, said, “Here we show that people who take adult education classes have a lower risk of developing dementia five years later. Adult education is likewise associated with better preservation of nonverbal reasoning with increasing age.” The scientists examined information from the UK Biobank, which has the genetic, health, and medical details of almost 500,000 British volunteers, of whom 282,421 individuals were examined for the study.
The study found that participants' risk of dementia was lowered by 19% compared to those who were not engaged in adult education programmes at the time of enrollment. Importantly, the outcomes remained the same when those with a history of diabetes, hyperlipidemia, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, or mental illness were excluded.