A team of researchers from the University of Tasmania's Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre has found that educating people about dementia risks, prompting them to modify their lifestyle and behaviours leads to a significant reduction in their dementia risk profile.
Researchers estimate that if the population could modify their behaviours around 14 recognised modifiable risk factors (see main image), dementia numbers would almost halve.
The Wicking study found exposing just over 3,000 participants (with an average age of 63.7 years) to a personalised dementia risk profile report based on their own survey responses and a four-week Preventing Dementia Massive Open Online Course (PDMOOC) resulted in the number of modifiable dementia risk factors falling from 2.17 to 1.66 - a 26% improvement.
Director Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre
Professor James Vickers, Director of the Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre and former Dean of Medicine at the University of Tasmania, told The SOURCE the team is five years into a 10-year study.
He said the findings suggest education and behaviour modifications could reduce dementia rates.
"The best evidence indicates that there are now 14 of these, which if you could mitigate against all of these, it has been estimated that there would be around 45% less cases of dementia," he said.
Wicking's PDMOOC has had more than 250,000 enrolments to date, yet awareness in the community of dementia and its risk factors remains "very low", he added.