One in three cases of Alzheimer’s disease is preventable, according to research. The main risk factors for the disease are a lack of exercise, smoking, depression and poor education, it says. Previous research from 2011 put the estimate at one in two cases, but this new study takes into account overlapping risk factors.
Alzheimer’s Research UK said age was still the biggest risk factor. Writing in The Lancet Neurology, the Cambridge team analysed population-based data to work out the main seven risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease.
These are: Diabetes, Mid-life hypertension, Mid-life obesity, Physical inactivity, Depression, Smoking, Low educational attainment.
They worked out that a third of Alzheimer’s cases could be linked to lifestyle factors that could be modified, such as lack of exercise and smoking. The researchers then looked at how reducing these factors could affect the number of future Alzheimer’s cases. They found that by reducing each risk factor by 10%, nearly nine million cases of the disease could be prevented by 2050.
In the UK, a 10% reduction in risk factors would reduce cases by 8.8%, or 200,000, by 2050, they calculated. Current estimates suggest that more than 106 million people worldwide will be living with Alzheimer’s by 2050 – more than three times the number affected in 2010.