Expanding the Gateway infrastructure: Supporting causal research on the role of childhood education for determining AD/ADRD-related outcomes

Summary Education is considered a key determinant of cognitive function and a potential driver of disparities in AD/ADRD risk and resilience, and education policies lead to widely different educational trajectories across cohorts and countries, which likely contribute to disparities in late-life cognitive outcomes in older age. Collecting, harmonizing, and sharing data on education policies can therefore support rigorous research to understand how education impacts cognition. However, these policies are complex to understand and time consuming to collect, and as a result, research in this area has been hampered by the absence of a rigorous and systematic data collection infrastructure on historical education policies. The Gateway to Global Aging Data (Gateway) is an NIA-supported data sharing and discovery project that facilitates cross-country, longitudinal research on aging, health, and retirement using data from the Health and Retirement Study and its International Network of Studies (HRS-INS) and the Harmonized Cognitive Assessment Protocol (HCAP) international network of studies. A central component of the Gateway’s work is the Policy Explorer, a digital tool that compares historical policy changes over time. In 2022 the Policy Explorer’s efforts expanded to include the collection and documentation of education policies. These efforts collected compulsory schooling reforms since 1900 in 22 countries and 31 U.S. states. To support research into the impact of education on AD/ADRD, the Gateway proposes to expand collection of historical education policies to include early childhood, primary, and secondary education policies that affect individuals globally and are pivotal to early and mid-life choices and late-life outcomes. We will collect novel data and document changes in primary and secondary education policies, focusing on reforms likely to influence disparities in access, quality, and type of education, including access to free schooling; sex and race/ethnicity-based differences in education delivery; and policies affecting public education financing and expenditures. In addition, we will gather novel data and document historical early childhood education and care policies. Using this documentation, we will develop harmonized education variables to support the replicable use of these policies in research. To accelerate AD/ADRD research, we will make our documentation and associated measures freely available through the Gateway and HRS-INS and HCAP networks, and host outreach activities aimed at spurring research and encouraging cross-national collaborations.