Doctors warn that two of the major ’causes’ of dementia are on the rise, since research shows that cardiovascular health could be the biggest risk factor for future dementia rates.
A new study led by researchers at University College London (UCL) finds that dementia risk factors associated with cardiovascular health may have increased over time compared to factors such as smoking and having less education revolving around a healthy lifestyle, which have decreased.
Two of the major ’causes’ of dementia have increased
A new study, published in The Lancet Public Health00120-8/fulltext) and led by UCL researchers, explored how the prevalence of dementia risk factors had changed over time and how this could impact rates of dementia in the future.
Dementia is not a specific disease, but rather a general term for the impaired ability to remember, think, or make decisions that interfere with everyday activities. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of dementia, as explained online by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Though dementia mostly affects older adults, it is not a part of normal aging.
Although there is no effective treatment or proven prevention for Alzheimer’s and related dementias, in general, leading a healthy lifestyle may help address risk factors that have been associated with the diseases.
An article posted on UCL News explains the new study look at current dementia risk factors and their changes over time, in particular cardiovascular health was labelled as a key cause. Cardiovascular health refers to the health of the heart and blood vessels.
The condition usually develops because of a combination of genetic and environmental factors, including hypertension, obesity, diabetes, education and smoking. But findings showed that rates of obesity and diabetes have increased over time, and so have their contribution to dementia risk.
The researchers analyzed 27 papers, involving people with dementia around the world with data collected between 1947 and 2015, with the latest paper published in 2020. They extracted data from each paper about dementia risk factors and calculated what proportion of dementia cases were attributable to each one, over time.
The greatest dementia risk factor remained as hypertension (high blood pressure – when the pressure in your blood vessels is unusually high) in most of the studies that were reviewed. The article notes that proactive management of hypertension has also increased over time.
Lead author Dr. Naaheed Mukadam stated: “Cardiovascular risk factors may have contributed more to dementia risk over time, so these deserve more targeted action for future dementia prevention efforts.”
Other ’causes’ of dementia are less common
Although two of the major ’causes’ of dementia are on the rise, the team found that people having less knowledge about health and smoking had gone down, meaning the fewer people are smoking and understand more about their own bodies.
Dr. Naaheed Mukadam explained: “Our results show that levels of education have increased over time in many higher income countries, meaning that this has become a less important dementia risk factor. Meanwhile, smoking levels have also declined in Europe and the USA as it has become less socially acceptable and more expensive.”
The patterns found in research suggest that population-level interventions could significantly impact the occurrence of dementia risk factors, Dr. Naaheed Mukadam stated that “governments should consider implementing schemes such as worldwide policies of education, and restrictions on smoking.”
Limitations of the findings note that the studies analyzed in the new research were from 2015 and earlier, therefore they may not reflect how trends may have changed since that time.
Dr. Naaheed Mukadam is a Clinical Associate Professor in Mental Health of Older People – Division of Psychiatry.
