Understanding the Risk Factors for Dementia
What are the main risk factors for dementia?
Dementia is the UK’s biggest killer. Affecting around 982,000 people in the UK, with numbers expected to rise to 1.4 million by 2040, 1 in 3 of us born today will be diagnosed in their lifetime.
But what are the biggest risk factors for dementia, and what are some misconceptions around the disease?
Age
The biggest risk factor for dementia is ageing.
While it’s important to note that dementia is a disease, and not, as many believe, a natural symptom of ageing, your risk of being diagnosed with dementia increases as you get older.
For people aged between 65 and 69, around 2 in every 100 people have dementia. A person’s risk increases as they age, roughly doubling every five years. This means that, of those aged over 90, around 33 in every 100 people have dementia.
Genes
Certain genes can affect a person’s chances of getting dementia. These may be passed down (inherited) from a parent. There are two types of these genes: ‘familial’ genes and ‘risk’ genes.
Long-Term Health Conditions
Diagnosing certain long-term health conditions earlier may reduce their damaging effects on brain health as people get older.
These include:
- Diabetes
- Hearing and vision loss
- Head injuries
- High blood pressure
- High cholesterol
- Depression
Lifestyle
There is a lot of evidence that our lifestyle choices can affect our risk of developing dementia. These behaviours and health conditions include:
- Physical activity
- Smoking
- Alcohol
- Social isolation
Dementia risk is lowest in people who have healthy behaviours in mid-life (aged 40-65).
Biological Sex
Overall, there are more women than men living with dementia. This is mostly because women tend to live longer than men.
The risk of getting dementia is about the same for men and women. However, women who are currently over 80 have a slightly higher risk of getting dementia than men their age.
Lower Cognitive Reserve
Cognitive reserve is when a person has a disease in their brain, but it takes longer for them to start showing symptoms. It is built up by keeping the brain active over a person’s lifetime.
The more cognitive reserve a person has, the longer it takes for diseases in their brain to cause problems with everyday tasks. This means people with a larger cognitive reserve can delay getting dementia symptoms. People with a smaller cognitive reserve are at a higher risk of getting dementia in their lifetime.
Race and Ethnicity
It’s possible that race and ethnicity could also be risk factors for dementia.
It’s still not clear if people from different ethnic groups in the UK have a higher chance of getting dementia.
Some studies have found differences in certain locations worldwide, though it’s hard to know if they reflect the situation in the UK population.
A few studies have suggested that people from Black African, Black Caribbean and South Asian ethnic groups are more likely to get dementia than people from White ethnic groups due to socioeconomic disparities, access to healthcare, and genetic predispositions like high blood pressure.
Socioeconomic Factors
People who live in deprived areas without suitable housing, education and work opportunities are at a higher risk of getting dementia.
This may be because the lack of opportunities in these areas makes it harder for a person to get further education and to access jobs that keep a person mentally active throughout their life.
Want to act against dementia?
At Merry Maids, the Alzheimer’s Society is our charity of the year, and after working to support their mission for multiple years, we are committed to assisting our staff and customers to have a better cleaning experience.
The Dementia Awareness training our staff have undertaken has given our team additional knowledge and understanding of dementia. We are thrilled to be continuing this initiative to continuing to have staff trained by Alzheimer’s Society.
If you want to make a difference in the fight against dementia, you can do so directly now by donating to our annual fundraiser to raise £10,000 for Alzheimer’s Society.
If you or someone you know would benefit from a professional and compassionate, regular or one-off, home cleaning service from the dementia friends at Merry Maids UK, find your nearest Merry Maids business or book online today.
