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Higher Activity Levels Linked to Lower Dementia Risk
Physical and mental activities, such as housework and friend/family visits, were found to decrease risk of dementia in a study published in Neurology.
“Such associations are independent of disease susceptibility, highlighting the potential of these physical and mental activity patterns as effective interventions in the primary prevention of dementia,” lead author Jianwei Zhu and co-authors noted on the association between activity patterns and risk for multiple types of dementia.
Related: Leisure Activities Associated With Reduced Dementia Risk
Data for the study was pulled from UK Biobank and included 501,376 dementia-free participants, 45% male, with an average age of 56 years. Participants were recruited from 2006 to 2010 and followed from 1 year after recruitment until the end of 2019 for ascertainment of dementia. Participants self-reported their activity levels throughout the study, including activity during leisure time, housework, transportation activity, social contact, use of electronic devices, and more. Researchers used Cox models to estimate the associations between activity levels, including major activity patterns and dementia risk. Dementia susceptibility was calculated using polygenic risk scores, the APOE genotype, and participants’ self-reported family history of dementia.
Over a mean follow-up of 10.6 years, 5185 participants had been diagnosed with dementia. Analysis of the results showed that a higher adherence level to activity patterns showed a lower risk of dementia.
“Because the suggested protective effects of these activity patterns were consistently observed among individuals with different disease susceptibilities,” researchers concluded, “such findings further underscore the potential of these identified physical and mental activity patterns as effective interventive strategies for the primary prevention of dementia among the general population.”
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