The Lancet Commission has added two new risk factors for dementia to its now third dementia prevention, intervention and care report after University College London (UCL) researchers presented new evidence, identifying a total of 14 modifiable risk factors for the neurological disease.
Affecting more than 944,000 people in the UK, dementia is a neurodegenerative condition that affects the ability to remember, think or make decisions in everyday life.
The updated report builds on the first landmark report published in 2017, concluding that dementia was linked to nine lifestyle and environmental risk factors, along with a further three added in 2020.
In light of new evidence, the two new risk factors identified are untreated vision loss and high low-density lipoprotein (LDL), which were recently presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in July.
According to UCL researchers, these two new risk factors are associated with 9% of all dementia cases, 7% of which are estimated to be attributable to high LDL or poor cholesterol from around age 40, while 2% of cases are associated with untreated vision loss in later life.
The other 12 previously identified risk factors are: lower levels of education, hearing impairment, high blood pressure, smoking, obesity, depression, physical inactivity, diabetes, excessive alcohol consumption, traumatic brain injury, air pollution and social isolation, which are linked with 40% of all dementia cases.
Authored by 27 world-leading dementia experts, the Commission is calling for governments and individuals to focus on tackling risks across the life course of dementia and outlines 13 recommendations to be adopted to help prevent and better manage dementia.
The recommendations include providing children with good quality education and being cognitively active in midlife; making hearing aids available for all those with hearing loss and reducing harmful noise exposure; and detecting and treating high LDL cholesterol in midlife from around age 40.
Lead author, professor Gill Livingston, UCL psychiatry, commented: “It is vital that we redouble preventive efforts towards those who need them most, including those in low- and middle-income countries and socio-economically disadvantaged groups. Governments must reduce risk inequalities by making healthy lifestyles as achievable as possible for everyone.”