Today's 70-Year-Old's Less Likely To Have Dementia Than Past Generations – Is This Why?

People in their seventies are less likely to develop dementia compared to someone of the same age decades ago, a study has found. Dementia is a general term for “loss of memory, language, problem-solving and other thinking abilities that are severe enough to interfere with daily life”, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.Researchers at the University of Queensland analysed data from more than 62,000 people over the age of 70 who were born from 1890 to 1948, with a view to determine whether there were generational differences in the prevalence of dementia.What did the study find?The analysis included data of 21,000 people from the US, 32,000 people from Europe and almost 9,000 people from England, with participants divided into eight birth cohorts and six age groups.Cohorts were grouped roughly into five blocks, with the earliest including people born between 1890-1913 and the most recent being 1944-1948.Dr Sabrina Lenzen from UQ’s Centre for the Business and Economics of Health said: “This enabled us to examine how dementia prevalence changes with age and across generations while taking into account when the surveys were conducted.”She said the results consistently showed people born more recently were less likely to have dementia, including in the US where 25.1% of people aged 81-85 who were born between 1890-1913 had dementia, compared to 15.5% of those born between 1939-1943.“There has been a lot of improvement in education – particularly for women if, for example, we compare to the baby boomer generation,” she added. Why is this?Dr Lenzen said it was likely improvements in cardiovascular health, education, living conditions and access to healthcare which have contributed to the findings.She said: “We’ve seen improvements in cardiovascular health, better control of blood pressure and cholesterol – all risk factors for dementia.“We see this strong correlation between age and dementia, but I think it’s really important to understand that it’s not just age driving those onsets.”As of 2024, there were 14 “modifiable risk factors” identified which could help prevent or delay dementia, according to the Lancet Commission on dementia prevention, intervention.In early life, education is a preventable risk factor. In mid-life, hearing loss, high LDL cholesterol, physical inactivity, smoking, hypertension, obesity and excessive alcohol intake are all linked to the degenerative disorder (you can find the full list here).In later life, social isolation, air pollution and visual loss have also been linked to it.The number of people diagnosed with dementia will growWhile people are less likely to develop dementia than previous generations, Dr Lenzen acknowledged that “as more people live longer, the total numbers of people diagnosed with dementia will grow”.“We often see statistics that show dementia prevalence rates are increasing – our study doesn’t refute that,” she said. “What we found was a statistically significant decline in people from more recent birth cohorts having dementia.”The study’s researchers called for continued investment in public health campaigns. “Some of the risk factors have been improving but we have been seeing a shift in terms of high obesity rates and things like air pollution,” Dr Lenzen said.“We know those are also related to dementia, so it’s not certain these trends will continue.”Related...Want To Prevent Dementia? This Body Part Might Have An Outsized Role5 Dementia Prevention Rules A Neurologist Lives By'She Stopped Talking': 5-Year-Old’s Dementia Diagnosis Began With These Early Warning Signs

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