Public Health

Area of Science:

• Gerontology
• Public Health
• Epidemiology

Background:

• Modifiable dementia risk factors are rarely studied comprehensively at a national level.
• Individual risk factor impact is known, but multimorbidity and co-occurrence are common.
• Limited evidence exists on dementia risk factor co-occurrence for population-level interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore the prevalence of sixteen modifiable dementia risk factors.
• To identify the most frequent combinations of these risk factors in a national population.

Main Methods:

• Utilized nationwide registries and the Danish National Health Survey (DNS).
• Analyzed a cohort of individuals aged ≥65 years on January 1, 2022.
• Calculated period prevalence for risk factors and combinations occurring in ≥10% of the subpopulation.

Main Results:

• 82% of 88,565 individuals had multiple dementia risk factors.
• Hypertension (57%), infections (52%), hypercholesterolemia (50%), and cardiovascular disease (46%) were most prevalent.
• Cardiometabolic factors and their combinations were most frequent; men had higher prevalence except for depression and education.

Conclusions:

• Clustering of dementia risk factors is highly prevalent, with cardiometabolic factors being most common.
• Findings support population-level interventions for dementia risk reduction.
• Interventions should consider the common co-occurrence and clustering of multiple risk factors.