World-leading experts say millions of dementia cases could be prevented, if the government reassess its approach to dementia care.
In total, the panel set out 56 recommendations, from improving public messaging, to identifying individual risk factors – including hearing loss, social isolation and high blood pressure – addressing environmental stressors, and continued funding.
Dr Harriet Demnitz-King, study lead author from Queen Mary University, said: ‘We know dementia risk can be reduced, but the evidence has not yet been transformed into a coherent governmental strategy.
‘People need clear, evidence-based guidance on protecting their brain health, but the information they receive can be confusing or make them feel blamed.
‘What we need now is coordinated, structural action to develop dementia prevention policies that are equitable, realistic and grounded in the lives people actually lead.’
The review includes 14 existing risk factors set out by the 2024 Lancet Commission which found that almost half of all Alzheimer’s cases could be prevented by tackling high cholesterol, vision loss, physical inactivity, social isolation and air pollution.
Publishing their findings in the journal Nature Reviews Neurology, the team said: ‘In the absence of a cure or wide access to effective treatments, prevention is key to addressing this increasing impact of dementia.’
Professor Charles Marshall, study co-author added: ‘Dementia is now the leading cause of death in the UK, so we desperately need a clear public health plan to improve this situation.
‘We hope that this consensus will lead to better public messaging about dementia, improved recognition and management of other conditions that increase dementia risk, a strategy on structural approaches to improving brain health, and research that addresses gaps in our knowledge about how best to do all this.
‘Implementing our recommendations will ensure that as many people as possible live to old age without dementia.’
According to the consensus, addressing individual risk factors, through improving public messaging about how to reduce dementia risk – by framing health outcomes as ‘matters of personal responsibility’ – gives people the best chance of preventing, or delaying dementia.
The panel recommended that public health messaging should focus on risk factors that are actionable at an individual level – such as staying active – and for which there is strong evidence the intervention can reduce dementia risk.
The best way to do this, according to the experts, is promoting clear, informative messages such as ‘Losing weight could reduce the risk of dementia.’
Dementia was also found to be the preferred terminology, over specific subtypes like Alzheimer’s Disease.
