Air pollution and dementia in older adults in the Ginkgo Evaluation of Memory Study

Growing evidence implicates air pollution as a risk factor for dementia, but prior work is limited by challenges in diagnostic accuracy and assessing exposures in the decades prior to disease development. We evaluated the impact of long-term fine particulate matter (PM_2.5 ) exposures on incident dementia (all-cause, Alzheimer's disease [AD], and vascular dementia [VaD]) in older adults.

A panel of neurologists adjudicated dementia cases based on extensive neuropsychological testing and magnetic resonance imaging. We applied validated fine-scale air pollutant models to reconstructed residential histories to assess exposures.

An interquartile range increase in 20-year PM_2.5 was associated with a 20% higher risk of dementia (95% confidence interval [CI]: 5%, 37%) and an increased risk of mixed VaD/AD but not AD alone.

Our findings suggest that air pollutant exposures over decades contribute to dementia and that effects of current exposures may be experienced years into the future.