Prevalence and Patterns of Modifiable Risk Factors for Dementia

With the aging of the Canadian population, the number of people living with dementia is projected to increase. Due to a lack of disease-modifying treatments for dementia, there is a pressing need to better understand how we can reduce dementia risk across all Canadians. A wide range of modifiable risk factors for dementia have been established and a 2020 report from the Lancet Commission found that addressing these modifiable risk factors might prevent up to 40% of dementias.

Most research examining risk factors and dementia outcomes has tended to focus on individual risk factors. However, it has been established that we need to move towards understanding multiple risk factors simultaneously. This project will examine modifiable risk factors for dementia in the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA) participants, calculate how frequently they occur, and identify any common patterns to build our understanding of modifiable dementia risk in the Canadian population.

Faculty Supervisor:

Zikun (Kem) Zhang

Student:

Partner:

Alzheimer Society of Canada

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Health and Related Sciences & Technology

University:

Lakehead University

Program: