Which types of mental work demands may be associated with reduced risk of dementia?
LIFE Adult

Abstract (Expand)

INTRODUCTION: Previous studies have demonstrated that an overall high level of mental work demands decreased dementia risk. In our study, we investigated whether this effect is driven by specific mental … work demands and whether it is exposure dependent. METHODS: Patients aged 75+ years were recruited from general practitioners and participated in up to seven assessment waves (every 1.5 years) of the longitudinal AgeCoDe study. Analyses of the impact of specific mental work demands on dementia risk were carried out via multivariate regression modeling (n = 2315). RESULTS: We observed a significantly lower dementia risk in individuals with a higher level of "information processing" (HR, 0.888), "pattern detection" (HR, 0.878), "mathematics" (HR, 0.878), and "creativity" (HR, 0.878). Yet, exposure-dependent effects were only significant for "information processing" and "pattern detection." DISCUSSION: Our longitudinal observations suggest that dementia risk may be reduced by some but not all types of mental work demands.

Authors: F. S. Then, T. Luck, K. Heser, A. Ernst, T. Posselt, B. Wiese, S. Mamone, C. Brettschneider, H. H. Konig, S. Weyerer, J. Werle, E. Mosch, H. Bickel, A. Fuchs, M. Pentzek, W. Maier, M. Scherer, M. Wagner, S. G. Riedel-Heller

Date Published: 30th Oct 2016

Publication Type: Journal article

Human Diseases: dementia

Education as protector against dementia, but what exactly do we mean by education?
LIFE Adult

Abstract (Expand)

OBJECTIVES: even though a great number of research studies have shown that high education has protective effects against dementia, some studies did not observe such a significant effect. In that respect, … the aim of our study was to investigate and compare various operationalisation approaches of education and how they impact dementia risk within one sample. METHODS: data were derived from the Leipzig longitudinal study of the aged (LEILA75+). Individuals aged 75 and older underwent six cognitive assessments at an interval of 1.5 years and a final follow-up 15 years after the baseline assessment. We operationalised education according to different approaches used in previous studies and analysed the impact on dementia incidence via multivariate cox regression modelling. RESULTS: the results showed that whether education is identified as significant protector against dementia strongly depends on the operationalisation of education. Whereas the pure number of years of education showed statistically significant protective effects on dementia risk, other more complex categorical classification approaches did not. Moreover, completing >10 years of education or a tertiary level seems to be an important threshold to significantly reduce dementia risk. CONCLUSION: findings suggest a protective effect of more years of education on a lower dementia risk with a particular critical threshold of completing >10 years of education. Further, the findings highlight that, when examining risks and protective factors of dementia, a careful consideration of the underlying definitions and operationalisation approaches is required.

Authors: F. S. Then, T. Luck, M. C. Angermeyer, S. G. Riedel-Heller

Date Published: 9th Apr 2016

Publication Type: Journal article

Human Diseases: dementia

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