Impact of urbanization on cognitive disorders

Cognitive disorders remain a major global burden with an estimated 47 million people living with dementia worldwide. Rates of cognitive disorders are expected to grow, especially as the global population ages. Global trends also indicate that about half of the global population lives in urban settings. To help guide future research, as well as the development of targeted and tailored interventions to prevent and care for people living with cognitive disorders, we present an up-to-date review and summary of the literature examining cognitive disorders and urbanization.

We reviewed the literature between January 2017 and September 2018 on cognitive disorders and urbanization. We found that rates of dementia among urban dwellers tends to be lower than those of rural dwellers. Leading theories explaining this difference tend to focus on better access to higher quality education, as well as public and health services among urban dwellers. We also found that greater exposure to air and noise pollutants may negatively impact cognition.

The reasons why older adults living in urban settings appear to have lower rates of dementia and better performance on cognitive measures are not well understood. Furthermore, the definitions of urban and rural and cognitive disorder, as well as how they are measured vary greatly between studies, making comparisons difficult.