Social isolation, air pollution and disadvantage are the main hidden causes of dementia

Jennifer Dunn, from the Center of Excellence for Dementia Research at Curtin University, said social isolation, air pollution and socio-economic disadvantage were the main hidden causes of dementia.

In the scientific literature, 80% of potentially modifiable risk and protective factors for dementia are at the individual level: a person's lifestyle and health status.

Dunn emphasized that social, environmental and structural factors have received less attention in the current research base than behavioral traits such as diet and physical activity.

MOSCOW, September 11 – RIA Novosti. Social isolation, air pollution and socio-economic disadvantage are the main unobvious causes of dementia, Jennifer Dunn, a researcher at the Center of Excellence for Dementia Research at Australia's Curtin University, told RIA Novosti.

In their latest work, Dunn and her colleagues analyzed how 61 potentially modifiable risk and protective factors for dementia are presented in the scientific literature. It turned out that 80% of them related to the so-called individual level: the lifestyle and health status of the person himself. These include smoking, physical activity, diet, sleep disorders, hypertension, diabetes and hearing loss. However, social, environmental and structural factors have received significantly less attention in the existing research base.

“I would highlight social isolation, air pollution and the broader effects of socio-economic disadvantage. These factors have received less attention than behaviors such as diet and physical activity, partly because they are harder to measure and harder to target through individual behavior change interventions,” Dunn said.

Of particular importance, according to the researcher, is social isolation.

“Social isolation is especially dangerous because strong social connections can support cognitive, psychological and cardiovascular health, but the ability to maintain these connections depends largely on access to transport, neighborhood design and amenities, housing conditions and the ability to participate in the local community,” she explained.

Dunn cited air pollution as another relatively underappreciated factor, despite growing scientific evidence linking long-term exposure to dementia risk.