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Innov Aging
Innov Aging
innovateage
Innovation in Aging
2399-5300 Oxford University Press US 

10.1093/geroni/igaa057.1274
igaa057.1274
Abstracts
Session 2953 (Poster)
Social Determinants of Health
AcademicSubjects/SOC02600
Longitudinal Association Between Education and Disability in Older Adults Living in Iceland
Chang Milan 1 Geirsdottir Olof 1 Launer Lenore 2 Gudnasson Vilmundur 1 Jonsson Palmi 1 Ramel Alfons 3 Gudjonsson Milan Chang 1 1 
University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland
2 
National Institute on Aging, Bethesda, Maryland, United States
3 
University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Capital area, Iceland

2020 
16 12 2020 
16 12 2020 
4 Suppl 1 Program Abstracts from The GSA 2020 Annual Scientific Meeting “Turning 75: Why Age Matters”396 396
© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America.2020This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Abstract
BACKGROUND: Disabilities among older adults are associated with cumulative adversities such as low socioeconomic status (SES), poor nutrition, and lack of access to medical care and education. However, there is little evidence on the long-term association between education and disability status among older adults in Iceland. The aim of the study was to examine the association between mid-life education and prevalence of disability in activities of daily living (ADL) and mobility disability in late-life using 25 years of longitudinal data. METHODS: A large community-based population residing in Reykjavik, Iceland participated in a longitudinal study with an average of 25 years of follow-up (N=5764, mean age 77±6 yrs, 57.7% of women) Mid-life education was categorized into 2 groups (primary and secondary versus college and university). Disability status in late life was defined with ADL and mobility disability with a binary outcome (no difficulty versus any difficulty). Logistic regression analysis was used to examine the association. RESULTS: After controlling for age and gender, and midlife health risk factors, those who had high education at mid-life were less likely to have ADL disability (Odds Ratio (OR) = 0.75, 95% Confidence Interval (CI): 0.64 ~ 0.88, P ≤ 0.001) and mobility disability (OR = 0.72, 95% CI: 0.61 ~ 0.86, P < 0.001) compared with those who had low education in mid-life. CONCLUSION: People with high mid-life education were less likely to have ADL and mobility disability after 25 years later.