Critical risks can lead to dementia
Addressing your health and wellbeing could help delay the onset of cognitive decline.
A week of action
Dementia Action Week, which starts on 16 September 2024, is aimed at encouraging all Australians to learn more about dementia and how we can help shape our communities for the better.
Suggested actions include writing to your local council about creating dementia-friendly communities plus tips about hosting an awareness event.
You can also sign on to become a “dementia friend”.
Details can be found here.
Nearly half of dementia cases worldwide could be prevented or delayed if just 14 risk factors were modified.
These include looking after your brain health, body health, and heart health, according to the 2024 update of the Lancet Commission on the prevention, treatment and care of dementia reports.
Geir Selbæk, a member of the commission and research director at the Norwegian National Centre for Ageing and Health, said the research had for the first time demonstrated a causal link between addressing the “modifiable” risk factors and reducing the likelihood of developing dementia by up to 45%.
Throughout our life we can take steps to reduce the risks of developing dementia – which has no cure – or at least delay its impacts until later in life.
Responding to the research, Dementia Australia said, “With 421,000 people in Australia living with dementia and this figure projected to double by 2054, a focus on government-funded public health and promotion is needed.”
The 14 risk factors are:
High low-density lipoprotein cholesterol
Vision loss
Lower levels of education
Hearing impairment
High blood pressure
Smoking
Obesity
Depression
Physical inactivity
Diabetes
Excessive alcohol consumption
Traumatic brain injury
Air pollution
Social isolation.
Educational and mentally stimulating activities, even in later life, can reduce the risk of dementia.
Wearing hearing aids, if hearing impaired, doubles the time it would take to progress from mild cognitive impairment to dementia, from an average of two to four years.
Dementia experts say a striking lesson to emerge from the research was that “there’s a lot that you can do to decrease your dementia risk … in terms of physical activity, probably mental activity and so on … even when you are 80-plus”.
While the risk factors are things individuals can address, such as smoking, other issues, such as air pollution and early childhood education, need structural changes in society.
Dementia Australia executive director, services, advocacy, and research, Dr Kaele Stokes, said it was important to raise public awareness about these self-help actions.
“While dementia is complex and people living with the condition have in no way brought dementia on themselves, this research shows that with significant commitment and investment by governments to raise awareness of these modifiable risk factors, we could be preventing or delaying the impact of dementia in the future,” Dr Stokes said.
The number of people living with dementia globally is expected to almost triple by 2050, with health and social costs related to the condition estimated to be more than $US1 trillion ($1.54 trillion) a year.
Some high-income countries, including the United States and United Kingdom, are seeing reductions in the proportion of older people with dementia, the report found.
It attributed the fall, in part, to “building cognitive and physical resilience over the life course and less vascular damage”.
For support, contact the National Dementia Helpline on 1800 100 500. An interpreter service is available.
Related reading: Dementia Australia, The Lancet
