Dealing With 14 Factors Could Massively Cut Dementia Cases

The Lancet Commission on dementia says cases are rising worldwide as people live longer—but its latest update has "new hopeful evidence about dementia prevention, intervention, and care." In a report Wednesday, the commission said tackling 14 risk factors, including two it has added to a previous list of 12, could delay or prevent 45% of dementia cases. "Many people around the world believe dementia is inevitable but it's not," lead author Dr. Gill Livingston tells the Guardian. "Our report concludes that you can hugely increase the chances of not developing dementia or pushing back its onset."

• The new factors. The commission, which includes 27 of the world's leading dementia experts, said it found "considerable evidence" to add untreated vision loss in later life as a risk factor, as losing the sense reduces brain stimulation, the CBC reports. High cholesterol after around age 40 was also added as a "potentially modifiable risk factor."

• The other 12. The commission listed the dozen factors it identified in a 2020 report: "Less education, head injury, physical inactivity, smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, hypertension, obesity, diabetes, hearing loss, depression, infrequent social contact, and air pollution." Livingston, a professor of psychiatry of older people at University College London, says the 12 factors were linked to 40% of dementia cases and addressing all 14 could cut cases by 45%
• Progress is "accelerating." Livingston tells CNN that the research team aimed to "add to evidence to give individuals and government accessible, reliable information and to help set a research agenda by highlighting what we don't know." She adds: "The progress in preventing and treating dementia is accelerating."

• "Never too early or too late." "It's also important to stress that while we now have stronger evidence that longer exposure to risk has a greater effect … it's never too early or too late to take action," Livingston tells the Guardian. In its report, the commission said people with healthy lifestyles had "dementia onset delayed for longer than their increased life expectancy, resulting in more healthy years and fewer years of illness."
• A message for public health leaders. Dr. Susan Kohlhaas, executive director of research at Alzheimer's Research UK, said some risk factors could be addressed by individuals. "But others, like air pollution and early childhood education, are bigger than individuals and communities," she said, per CNN. "Tackling them will need structural changes to society to give everyone the best chance of a healthy life, free from the impact of dementia. Public health leaders must not ignore this message."

(More dementia stories.)