Preventing cognitive impairment by reducing air pollution

Mitigating the impact of air pollution on dementia and brain health: Setting the policy agenda

“…While research, policy and practice strategies have been proposed to address air pollution's impact on public health more generally, their benefits for brain health, including dementia, remain undeveloped (Calderón-Garcidueñas et al, 2015;Chen and Kan, 2022). This underdevelopment is an urgent public health concern, given the rapid growing evidence of the links between places, air pollution, brain health, and dementia.…”

“…Second, life course models provide important context for policy and planning, as they chart and analyse the health of people within and across the historical, geographical, social, and environmental contexts in which they live, including wider determinants (Russ et al, 2021). Third, given that breathing high levels of air pollution at critical points in the life-course is detrimental to brain health and cognitive development, particularly in early life and childhood, primary prevention approaches need such vital information to know when intervening is most crucial and cost effective (Chen and Kan, 2022).…”

“…Given the global impact of air pollution and PM 2.5 on brain health and dementia, prevention through air quality improvement could lead to better-quality health outcomes, improve productivity and quality of life, and reduce health-related costs 2 (e.g., Calderón-Garcidueñas et al, 2015;Chandra et al, 2022;Chen and Kan, 2022). The WHO estimates that roughly 55 million people have dementia worldwide, at a global cost of roughly $1.3 trillion; and this figure is expected to rise to 139 million by 2050, with an estimated global cost of $2.8 trillion.…”

“…Such a complex public health challenge requires innovative systems approaches to policy and practice (Bicket et al, 2020;Skivington et al, 2021). The challenge is that, while strategies have been proposed to address the impact that air pollution has on public health more generally, their benefits for brain health and dementia are only just beginning to be explored (e.g., Calderón-Garcidueñas et al, 2015;Chen and Kan, 2022). This lack of policy development is an immediate public health concern, given the gravity of the links between place, air pollution, brain health, and dementia (Chen and Kan, 2022;Russ et al, 2019) and the need for a continuous evaluation of policies to target interventions more effectively and possibly downregulate less effective practice.…”