Effects of Cognitive Functioning and Education on Later-Life Health Numeracy

Abstract

<b><i>Introduction:</i></b> Previous studies have shown an association between a high health numeracy and good cognitive functioning. <b><i>Objective:</i></b> To investigate the moderation effect of education on this relationship and which brain structures support health numeracy. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> We examined 70 healthy older persons (66% females; mean ± SD: age, 75.73 ± 4.52 years; education, 12.21 ± 2.94 years). The participants underwent a T1-weighted 3-T MRI and a neuropsychological assessment including a health numeracy task. Statistical parametric mapping was applied to identify focal changes in cortical thickness throughout the entire brain and to correlate image parameters with behavioral measures. <b><i>Results:</i></b> Executive functions and mental calculation emerged as predictors of health numeracy (<i>B</i> = 0.22, <i>p</i> < 0.05, and <i>B</i> = 0.38, <i>p</i> < 0.01). An interaction was found between education and executive functions (<i>B</i> = –0.16, <i>p</i> = 0.01) and between education and mental calculation (<i>B</i> = –0.11, <i>p</i> < 0.05). Executive functions and mental calculation had an impact on health numeracy in participants with a low to intermediate edu­cation (≤12 years) but not in those with a higher education (>12 years). Health numeracy scores were associated with cortical thickness in the right dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and the right superior temporal gyrus (<i>p</i> = 0.01). <b><i>Conclusions:</i></b> Older people with a higher education perform better in health numeracy tasks than those with a lower education. They have access to previously acquired knowledge about ratio concepts and do not need to rely on executive functions and computational skills. This is highly relevant when decisions about health care have to be made.

Understanding of Numerical Information during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…It is therefore possible that we missed correlations between performance on the COV Numeracy Scale and demographical variables as previously found for other numeracy scales [ 22 ]. In this study, a correlation between education and objective performance was only found for the HNS, in line with previous studies [ 22 , 23 ]. Authors of future studies are encouraged to administer the COV Numeracy Scale to a large stratified sample of participants in order to detect possible variations in performance due to age, education level, and sex.…”

“…Previous studies showed that numeracy is poor among the general population [ 21 ]. It decreases with advancing age [ 22 ] and is low in people with low education [ 22 , 23 , 24 ], older women [ 22 ], and people with poor cognitive abilities (specifically, executive functions and mental calculation) [ 22 , 23 ]. In numeracy tasks, people with neurodegenerative conditions are even more at disadvantage than healthy individuals are [ 25 , 26 ].…”

Dyscalculia in Early Adulthood: Implications for Numerical Activities of Daily Living

“…These results can provide new information for the formulation of interventions for adults with DD. Many efforts have been made in the last decades to support students with mathematical learning difficulties [46,47], but attempts to propose age-appropriate trainings for adults with numerical difficulties are rare [48,49]. Our study highlights the need to design innovative interventions that may target deficiencies in the cognitive, numerical, social, and emotional dimensions of adults with DD.…”

The interactive support of cognitive reserve and semantic knowledge in proper name retrieval

“…Recent research, indeed, seems to show that this may not be the case: while efficiency in most abilities, like attention, executive functions, working memory, and orientation, is directly and positively related to the amount of CR, evidence has been found that other abilities do not seem to be as sensitive (Lavrencic et al, 2018;Pettigrew & Soldan, 2019). For instance, Arcara and colleagues (2017) showed that CR (including education, working and leisure activities) does not predict aging performance in basic mathematical abilities (which were in fact predicted only by education; see also Zamarian et al, 2020). The reason for this result, may be that, in contrast to other contents of knowledge, basic math notions are specific and learned early at school in a systematic way.…”