Abstract:
This thesis examines the role of education on cognitive ability among the older population of Thailand. The nationally-representative data primarily utilised in this thesis is 2016 Population Change and Well-being in the Context of Aging Society. Other datasets had been used in selected themes within this thesis. Multiple analytic approaches had been applied to this study to show various effects of education gradients on cognitive functioning.
In the first study, education and other covariates including income, health status, living arrangement, and social participation among others had been analysed by gender to test if the significant factors would be similar. It was observed that education and income are the only determinants consistently associated among genders with cognition. For the second study, the prevalence of ill health including lower cognitive performance were estimated. Two sets of models were created for the said estimations with one controlling for age and sex and the other controlling for age, sex, and education levels. These estimates were then applied to current and projected populations and what was observed was the prevalence of ill health was significantly lower when education level is integrated into the models. The functional limitations and dependency of older persons is lower when older people have higher levels of education. In the final study within this thesis, the characteristics approach is used to analyse the differences on the speed of cognitive ageing by education levels. The general observation among genders is that there is about a 10-year advantage in cognitive performance for those with higher than primary level of education compared with those who have lower than primary level. Comparing the trajectory of cognitive ageing, women with primary education and higher than primary education levels experience slower declines as they age compared with men with the same education levels.
