A new study by researchers at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis has found that nearly 50% of all dementia cases in the United States may be linked to a dozen modifiable risk factors, particularly hypertension, obesity, and physical inactivity, according to Medical Xpress.
The study was presented last week at the American Heart Association’s Epidemiology and Prevention, Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health conference.
The findings suggest that a vast majority of dementia cases could be prevented who had the highest percentage of combined risk factors, especially among Black and Hispanic adults.
Lead author Dr. Mark Lee said, “There are things people can do that can raise or lower their individual risk” for dementia.
As the age progresses, more and more dementia cases are reported in the United States. Nearly 6 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s and dementias related to other causes.
Experts expect this number to hit by 14 million by 2060, with Black and Hispanic adults seeing the largest increases. Black and Hispanic adults are more vulnerable because of higher rates of heart disease and diabetes – the common risk factors of dementia. Also, social determinants of health have a key role to play, such as lower levels of education, higher rates of poverty, and greater exposure to discrimination.
Previous studies have identified 12 modifiable risk factors responsible for nearly 40% of dementia cases worldwide, such as lower education level, hearing loss, traumatic brain injury, high blood pressure, excessive alcohol consumption, obesity, smoking, depression, social isolation, not getting the recommended amount of physical activity, diabetes, and air pollution.
In the United States, more than 42% of dementia cases were attributable to the 12 factors, with three heart-related risk factors driving the bulk of that risk across all races. The researchers found that hypertension (high blood pressure) contributed to 6.7% of those cases; obesity to 7%; and physical inactivity to 6.7%.
These three risk factors were highest among Black and Hispanic adults. However, Asian people had the lowest percentage of combined risk factors.
Dr. Lee said that the findings point to the need for better strategies to reduce heart-related risk factors, which could further reduce dementia risk.
Prof. Priya Palta of Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York City said this can, in part, be done through lifestyle changes, combined with medication as needed.
“Maintaining a cognitively and physically active lifestyle and controlling risk factor levels pharmacologically, when necessary, throughout one’s life course is critical for later-life brain health and is likely to impact many of the risk factors examined in this study,” explained Prof. Palta, who was not part of the current study.
Dr. Lee said the next plan is to determine the interventions that are effective at reducing all of these 12 modifiable dementia risk factors.
He went on to say that there is a need for a deeper investigation into the social determinants of health underlying racial disparities. “That’s a really important direction we need to move to if we are serious about achieving equity in health interventions,” he said.
