O3‐06‐06: The Projected impact of risk factor reduction on Alzheimer's disease prevalence

Abstract

There are currently approximately 33.9 million individuals with Alzheimer's disease (AD) worldwide, and prevalence is expected to triple over the next 40 years. The goal of this review was to summarize the evidence regarding seven potentially modifiable AD risk factors: diabetes, midlife hypertension, mid-life obesity, smoking, depression, low educational attainment and physical inactivity. In addition, we projected the impact of risk factor reduction on AD prevalence by calculating population attributable risks (PARs, the percent of cases attributable to a given factor) and the number of AD cases that could potentially be prevented by 10% and 25% risk factor reductions worldwide and in the US. Together, these factors contributed to up to half of AD cases globally (17.2 million) and in the US (2.9 million). A 10%-25% reduction in all seven risk factors could potentially prevent as many as 1.1-3.0 million cases worldwide and 184,000-492,000 cases in the US.

Monetary Costs of Dementia in the United States

“…First, persons with dementia are likely to have more coexisting chronic health problems than those without dementia, because they tend to be older and because certain diseases (e.g., stroke and depression) are more common in persons with dementia. 5 Thus, adjusting for the presence of these coexisting conditions is important in estimating the costs due to dementia alone, as opposed to the total costs for the population with dementia. Second, informal caregiving, the unpaid care provided by family and friends, in the form of assistance with activities of daily living (ADLs), is an important component of the support required by those with dementia, 6 yet it is unclear how to attribute a monetary cost to an informal caregiver's time.…”

Association of MTHFR and PICALM polymorphisms with Alzheimer’s disease

“…Because educational attainment is related to dementia [19], we considered this co-variable in the logistic regression analysis. The mechanism through which education modifies the expression of dementia is currently unknown.…”

Aligning physiology with psychology: Translational neuroscience in neuropsychiatric drug discovery

“…For example, limited educational opportunities and degree of physical activity are risk factors for the development and severity of Alzheimer's disease (Lindsay, 2002). Furthermore, there are distinct possibilities that appropriate nonpharmacological intervention can mitigate the progression and severity of this disorder [ (Barnes and Yaffe, 2011;Xu et al, 2015), but see (Bahar-Fuchs et al, 2013) for a recent review of the clinical effects of cognitive training in mild Alzheimer's disease subjects].…”