Exercise more, eat well, stay connected and look after your health.
It’s familiar advice for reducing the risk of dementia, but new Curtin University research suggests there is another part of the picture – whether people have a fair chance to follow that advice in the first place.
Researchers examined 61 potentially modifiable dementia risks and protective factors and found about 80 percent had been studied at the individual level.
Lead author Dr Jennifer Dunne, from Curtin University’s Dementia Centre of Excellence, said dementia prevention needed to be treated as a public health issue rather than simply a matter of personal responsibility.
“Advice about exercising, eating well, remaining socially connected and managing health conditions is important, but people need environments that enable them to act on that advice,” Dr Dunne said.
She said factors including access to healthcare and transport, neighbourhood safety, walkability, air pollution, social isolation and socioeconomic disadvantage deserved greater attention.
The research, published in The Lancet Public Health, found far less attention had been given to people’s relationships, communities and wider social conditions.
Dr Dunne said the findings had practical implications for WA communities.
“A message to exercise more has limited value if someone does not have a safe or accessible place to walk,” she said.
“Advice to manage blood pressure, diabetes, hearing loss or vision loss is harder to follow when healthcare is distant, expensive or difficult to access.
“Staying socially connected can also be challenging without transport or local activities.”
She said these barriers could be particularly relevant in regional and remote areas and communities experiencing disadvantage.
Local governments and community organisations could also play a part through the services and spaces they provide, including parks, footpaths, libraries, recreation facilities, community centres and social programs.
“They can make neighbourhoods safer and easier to navigate, provide affordable activities, support social connection and ensure programs are accessible to older people and culturally diverse communities,” Dr Dunne said.
The study does not suggest people should stop taking steps to reduce their own risk.
Dr Dunne said being physically active, eating well, not smoking, maintaining social connections and managing conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, hearing loss and high cholesterol remained important.
“Our message is not that individual action does not matter,” she said.
“It is that people do not make these choices in a vacuum, and not everyone has the same opportunities or resources.”
The 2024 Lancet Commission identified 14 potentially modifiable dementia risk factors across a person’s life and estimated that addressing them could prevent or delay almost half of dementia cases globally.
The researchers stressed this was a population-level estimate and did not mean every case of dementia could be prevented.
According to the figures provided with the research, about 446,500 Australians are living with dementia, with that number expected to exceed one million by 2065.
The Curtin study was conducted with researchers from NeuRA, UNSW Sydney and Dementia Australia.
