14 Risk Factors, One Goal: Preventing Dementia Through Lifestyle and Intervention

In this episode we are talking about the report from The Lancet which summarizes a recent commission on dementia prevention, intervention, and care. The authors reviewed existing research and conducted new meta-analyses to identify 14 potentially modifiable risk factors for dementia. These risk factors are categorised by the stage of life in which they are most impactful, and the commission has calculated the population attributable fraction (PAF) for each factor, finding that nearly half of dementia cases could be prevented by eliminating these risks. The report provides a comprehensive overview of current research on dementia, including a discussion of modifiable risk factors, interventions for cognitive and neuropsychiatric symptoms, and the use of biomarkers for diagnosis and clinical trials. https://doi.org/10.1016/ S0140-6736(24)01296-0