Preventing the development of dementia can begin as early as childhood, new research says, with 14 risk factors identified that could be a step toward reducing a global trend by nearly half. At the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference, held between July 28 and August 1 in Philadelphia, the third Lancet Commission on dementia prevention, intervention, and care outlined recommendations for governments to help reduce risk, suggesting that in England, for example, around £4 billion could be saved through large-scale interventions.
The commission reports these conclusions in The Lancet. The Commission’s new report added high cholesterol after the age of 40 and vision loss as new risk factors to that list, suggesting that they contribute to about 9% of all dementia cases — 7% for high cholesterol and 2% for vision loss.
Dementia is an umbrella-term for several neurodegenerative conditions characterized by symptoms affecting memory, communication, and thinking. Although the likelihood of having dementia increases with age, it is not a normal part of aging.
The current report notes that given a rapidly aging global population, the number of people with dementia is expected to almost triple by 2050, rising from 57 million in 2019 to 153 million.
In lower-income countries, longer life expectancy is causing a surge in dementia, and the economic impact of dementia around the world is estimated to be more than $1 trillion a year.
Andrew Sommerlad, BMBS, PhD, one of the Lancet Commission report’s authors and an associate professor at University College London’s division of Psychiatry and Consultant Old Age Psychiatrist in Islington Memory Service, told that a broad, organized approach by governments around the world would be necessary to combat the expected surge in dementia in the next several decades. Many of the known risk factors for dementia can be influenced by health and government policy and this is likely to be the most effective way to support people to make lifestyle changes which they would not otherwise be able to do themselves.
Keeping modifiable risk-factors for dementia front and center in the discussion of achieving healthy brain development and subsequent aging informs governmental public health initiatives across the lifespan. Taking a stance that improved health across the lifespan leads to higher vitality with aging is one way to get dementia risk reduction taken seriously. There is consistent evidence that having more frequent social contact with others and lower levels of loneliness are linked to lower dementia risk.
This is likely to be because social contact in any form is an effective way of exercising our brains to build cognitive reserve, or resilience, against dementia pathology. The evidence is building that drinking any amount of alcohol is damaging for dementia risk and general health so reduction over time in the proportion of people drinking or engaging in other risky health behaviors is positive.
