Younger generations are less likely to suffer from dementia – research

Dementia is less often diagnosed in younger generations compared to previous

Igorvetushko/Depositphotos

People born in recent decades have a lower risk of dementia than previous generations. This pattern is especially evident among women.

This is stated in a new study of scientists from Australia, whose results Posted In the Jama Network Open Scientific Journal, writes The Guardian.

Scientists have analyzed more than 62 thousand people older than 70 years from the United States, the United Kingdom and some other European countries.

The team of scientists has developed an algorithm that allows you to evaluate the likelihood of dementia. It helps to analyze the wide range of these participants and the results of cognitive tests that evaluate memory, attention, thinking, etc.

Later, the participants were divided into several groups by two criteria: generations and age.

Researchers have found that the prevalence of dementia has grown with age among all categories in each of the three regions: the United Kingdom, the United States and Europe. However, at a certain age, people from the last generations were less prone to dementia than the representatives of the previous ones. Scientists say this result was expected.

They also added that this trend was more pronounced among women, especially in Europe and England. One of the reasons why scientists may be, is the expansion of access to education for women in the mid -twentieth century.

« For example, in the United States among people aged 81 to 85 years, 25.1% of those born between 1890-1913 had dementia, compared to 15.5% of those born between 1939-1943.

Younger generations are less likely to suffer from dementia at the same age as their parents or grandparents, and this is a encouraging sign. The overall burden of dementia will continue to grow with the aging of the population. This remains considerable inequality, especially by gender, level of education and geographical location“ Said Dr. Sabrina Lenten from the Center for Business and Health Economics at Kinsland University (Australia).

Although the study did not study the causes of this trend, Professor Tara Spire-Jones, Director of the Brain Studies Center at the University of Edinburgh (Scotland) noted that this could be associated with a number of factors, such as compulsory education, prohibition of smoking and improving the treatment of heart disease.

Earlier we toldwhich can increase the risk of dementia in the elderly.