News

Prof Gill Livingston, one of our Consultant Psychiatrists, is the lead author of a new report published on Wednesday 31 July in The Lancet’s 2024 Commission.

In their paper, Gill and her colleagues name 14 lifestyle factors that can be modified as early on as childhood to prevent or delay the onset of dementia. This includes identifying two new lifestyle factors that impact dementia onset - vision loss and high cholesterol - which the team has now linked to dementia.

Twelve lifestyle factors were published as impacting dementia onset in The Lancet’s 2020 Commission: 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. These are linked with 40% of dementia cases.

The 2024 Commission’s report includes two more modifiable risk factors to add to the twelve already known about: high levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol – or ‘bad’ cholesterol – in midlife and vision loss in later life. These are linked with 9% of dementia cases, with 7% linked to high LDL cholesterol alone, making this the joint single-biggest risk factor alongside hearing impairment.

Governments’ role in reducing dementia through promotion of lifestyle changes

The report calls for governments and individuals to be ambitious about tackling risks for dementia throughout life, arguing that the earlier we can address and reduce risk factor levels, the better.

Thirteen lifestyle changes are set out by Gill and her colleagues, informing governments how they can shape public health initiatives to reduce dementia. The modifications the report details, include:

• Make hearing aids available for all those with hearing loss and reduce harmful noise exposure.
• Detect and treat high LDL cholesterol in midlife from around age 40 years .
• Make screening and treatment for vision impairment accessible for all.
• Treat depression effectively.
• Wear helmets and head protection in contact sports and on bikes.
• Prioritise supportive community environments and housing to increase social contact.
• Reduce exposure to air pollution through strict clean air policies.chase, and smoking bans.
• Expand measures to reduce smoking, such as price control, raising the minimum age of purchase, and smoking bans.
• Reduce sugar and salt content in food sold in stores and restaurants.

Gill Livingston says: “Lifestyles that involve regular exercise, not smoking, cognitive activity in midlife (including outside formal education) and avoiding excess alcohol can not only lower dementia risk but may also push back dementia onset. So, if people do develop dementia, they are likely to live less years with it. This has huge quality of life implications for individuals as well as cost-saving benefits for societies.”

The full report is available to read here, which includes more about how much money the authors believe could be saved in England if their recommendations are followed by Government. There's also this infographic which highlights the 14 modifiable risk factors Lancet infographic - Dementia Risk Factors 2024.pdf

A huge congratulations to Gill and her colleagues on authoring the report, which is set to be key in improving how we work to prevent dementia at population level!