New Study Reveals HBCU Attendance Ties To Better Brain Health Throughout Lifetime

The study is uncovering the potential long-term health benefits of attending an HBCU.

A new study has revealed the long-term health benefits of attending a historically Black college or university.

The study, published in February in Jama Network Open, suggested that students in a culturally affirming academic environment often fare better decades later. According to The Guardian, nearly 2,000 Black adults participated in the study, with 35% of survey respondents attending an HBCU between 1940 and 1980.

The study’s findings concluded that where one matriculated through college had a holistic impact on their general well-being. During that 40-year period, significant policy changes shifted academia for all age levels in the United States.

These political frameworks included the 1952 Brown v Board of Education and the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Both pieces of legislation transformed racial dynamics in U.S. schools, leaving Black students with more educational options than ever before.

However, these scholastic choices reportedly had varying effects on one’s mental, emotional, and even physical health. The study’s results found that Black students at HBCUs maintained better memory and cognitive function than their Black peers at predominantly white institutions (PWIs).

“HBCU attendees had better cognition across all three of those different time periods,” explained Dr. Marilyn Thomas, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.

However, the early-life factors that divided HBCU and PWI attendees also varied greatly. HBCU scholars often grew up in functional homes where their mothers had college educations.

“Participants who attended HBCUs were more likely, for example, to have mothers or female caregivers who had a college education,” added Thomas. “They were also more likely to have reported being shown affection when they were growing up, love and affection.”

Thomas’ previous research explored correlations between one’s experiences with racism and their overall health condition. This study contributes to a growing phenomenon that HBCU alums, subjected to fewer instances of racism, have lower stress levels due to their school environment. While other studies have focused on how the length of one’s education affects cognitive function, this study launched a new conversation about how culturally affirming institutions also play a role.

“What’s really important about this finding is that it suggests that, yes, culturally affirming spaces actually can help promote and protect cognitive health,” she continued “It’s even more than that because it doesn’t just demonstrate that it’s protective against cognitive health, but the benefits to this exposure last well beyond graduation -– these are people at mean age 62. These benefits are long-lasting.”

The findings remain especially crucial in the age of anti-DEI legislation. Now, students may face similar instances of isolation and lack of cultural empowerment as the Trump administration cracks down on DEI programming at colleges and universities. While the study only introduces the concept that HBCU attendance promotes better health outcomes, it ingrains the importance of uplifting such institutions for students of color.

“But what this [study] does is it shows us actually when you do create environments where socially marginalized people feel more welcome or feel more affirmed, they live healthier lives.”