Each study has a usefulness score out of 100 (rubric version 4.0). Tap a score to see what makes it up.
Highest usefulness score first. Studies without a score come last.
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Progressive dementia was detected by PET with a sensitivity of 93% (191/206) and a specificity of 76% (59/78).
Why it matters
In this study, PET scans of brain glucose use detected progressive dementia with 93% sensitivity and 76% specificity and identified Alzheimer's disease among patients with neuropathologically based diagnoses. It concerns diagnosis and prognosis only and provides no treatment, cure or prevention for Alzheimer's disease.
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It was difficult for a palliative care research team to influence the care of advanced dementia patients in the acute hospital setting.
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Main results We included 82 studies with 10,613 participants; 72 studies with 9783 participants provided extractable data.
Why it matters
Across 82 studies, ginkgo showed little to no effect on global clinical status, cognition, or daily activities in people with cognitive problems, based on moderate-certainty evidence. Some low-certainty results suggested possible benefit on certain scales, but a larger study also found that side effects may be more common with ginkgo than placebo.
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Compared with the usual care clinics (12-month incidence, 213 of 1724 [12.4%]), the odds of an incident ADRD diagnosis were higher in the clinics randomized to QDRS plus PDM (12-month incidence, 355 of 2301 [15.4%]; adjusted odds ratio [AOR], 1.31; 95% CI, 1.05-1.64) but not the clinics randomized to PDM only (12-month incidence, 134 of 1300 [10.3%]; AOR, 0.84; 95% CI, 0.63-1.11]).
Why it matters
Clinics using a questionnaire plus a digital assessment tool had more new dementia diagnoses and more dementia diagnostic assessments than usual care clinics, while clinics using the digital tool alone did not. This suggests the combined approach may help identify dementia in primary care, though the study did not test any treatment.
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Enrolment took place between March 2023 and May 2023.
Why it matters
This trial tested a village doctor-led mobile health intervention in rural China and found improvements in cardiovascular risk factors such as blood pressure, blood glucose and smoking, with no significant change in cholesterol or obesity. It did not measure any effect on Alzheimer's disease, dementia or cognition.
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Observationally, CVDs were associated with risk of all incident outcomes in meta-analyses, with hazard ratios up to 7.00 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 6.20, 7.92).
Why it matters
This meta-analysis found that cardiovascular diseases, and genetically predicted ischemic stroke in particular, are associated with higher risk of all-cause dementia, Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia, with the stroke links likely causal. It suggests that preventing cardiovascular disease could be integrated into efforts to reduce dementia risk.
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Brain clocks, which quantify discrepancies between brain age and chronological age, hold promise for understanding brain health and disease.
Why it matters
This analysis of brain-age gap models across 15 countries found older brain ages in Latin American and Caribbean datasets and an ascending brain-age gap from healthy controls to mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer's disease. It links socioeconomic inequality, pollution and health disparities to brain-age gaps but does not test any treatment or prevention.
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Of 92 383 participants, 60 582 (65.6%) were women and the mean (SD) age was 56.4 (8.0) years.
Why it matters
In this cohort study, consuming at least 7 grams of olive oil per day was associated with a 28% lower risk of dementia-related death compared with never or rarely consuming olive oil. This is an observational association and does not prove that olive oil prevents dementia.
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The results of this cohort study suggest that hearing loss was associated with increased dementia risk, especially among people not using hearing aids, suggesting that hearing aids might prevent or delay the onset and progression of dementia.
Why it matters
This population-based cohort study of 573,088 people in Southern Denmark found that hearing loss was associated with an increased risk of dementia, with severe hearing loss linked to higher risk. It supports hearing loss as a risk factor for dementia, but it does not show that hearing aids prevent or treat dementia.
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At 6 months, compared with usual care, participants receiving the intervention had better QOL (QOL-AD score, 0.09 [95% CI, -0.63 to 0.82] vs -0.88 [95% CI, -1.62 to -0.13]; treatment effect estimate, 0.97; 95% CI, 0.07-1.86; P = .03).
Why it matters
A palliative education and telehealth support intervention improved quality of life for patients with Parkinson disease and related disorders compared with usual care. It found no significant difference in caregiver burden, and the treatment effects were small.
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Overall, uptake was lower among men than among women (odds ratio [OR] 0·91 [95% CI 0·88-0·94]; p<0·0001), and higher among older age groups (1·48 [1·42-1·54] among those aged 65-69 years vs those aged 55-59 years; p<0·0001), groups with less deprivation (1·89 [1·76-2·04] for the most vs the least deprived areas; p<0·0001), individuals of Asian ethnicity (1·14 [1·09-1·20] vs White ethnicity; p<0·0001), and individuals who were former smokers (1·89 [1·83-1·95] vs current smokers; p<0·0001).
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In this cohort study, a higher number of steps was associated with lower risk of all-cause dementia.
Why it matters
In 78,430 UK adults (mean age 61) followed for a median of 6.9 years, 866 developed dementia. Taking more daily steps was associated with a lower risk of all-cause dementia, and the authors suggest that "just under 10 000 steps per day may be optimally associated" with that lower risk. The study is observational and 96.7% of participants were White, so it cannot show that walking prevents dementia or that the same holds for every group.
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Risk stratification is critical for the early identification of high-risk individuals and disease prevention.
Why it matters
This study found that a metabolomic state derived from blood markers added predictive information beyond standard clinical variables for several diseases, including dementia. It is about predicting risk, not about treating, curing, or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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The negative association between depression treatment and incident dementia was significant in the increasing and chronically low courses, highlighting the necessity of timely interventional strategies before depression progresses to a chronically severe state.
Why it matters
Depression was linked to a 51% higher risk of dementia, and the risk varied by the course of depressive symptoms, with no association found for a decreasing course. People who received depression treatment had a lower risk of dementia than those who were depressed but untreated.
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This analysis of 2-year retrospective cohort studies of individuals diagnosed with COVID-19 showed that the increased incidence of mood and anxiety disorders was transient, with no overall excess of these diagnoses compared with other respiratory infections.
Why it matters
In this analysis of 1,284,437 patients with COVID-19, most neurological and psychiatric outcomes had increased risks after six months, but risks of common psychiatric disorders returned to baseline within one to two months. The study concerns risks after SARS-CoV-2 infection and does not test any treatment, cure or prevention for Alzheimer's disease.
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70/100
In this prospective cohort study, higher consumption of UPF was associated with higher risk of dementia, whereas substituting unprocessed or minimally processed foods for UPF was associated with lower risk of dementia.
Why it matters
This UK Biobank cohort found that higher consumption of ultraprocessed foods was linked to higher dementia risk. As an observational study, it shows an association and cannot prove that these foods cause dementia.
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DNA methylation algorithms are increasingly used to estimate biological aging; however, how these proposed measures of whole-organism biological aging relate to aging in the brain is not known.
Why it matters
This study tested whether blood-based DNA methylation measures of biological aging are associated with cognitive impairment and dementia using data from two large cohort studies. It examines a possible link between aging measures and dementia but does not test any treatment, cure, or prevention.
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Compared with no sensory impairment, DSI was associated with increased risk of all-cause dementia (hazard ratio [HR], 2.60; 95% CI, 1.66-2.06; P Conclusions and relevance In this cohort study, DSI was associated with increased risk of dementia, particularly AD.
Why it matters
This prospective cohort study evaluated whether dual sensory impairment (concurrent hearing and vision deficits) is associated with incident dementia in older adults. It is an observational study of sensory impairment and dementia risk, not a test of any treatment, cure, or prevention.
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Sleep apnea (SA) is potentially a modifiable risk factor for dementia.
Why it matters
This analysis of over a million patients found that people with sleep apnea had a higher risk of developing Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease, but no significant link was found for vascular dementia. Because sleep apnea can be treated, it is a potentially modifiable risk factor, but the review found no studies that looked at dementia biomarkers.
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Over 10 years of close clinical dementia surveillance in this cohort study, loneliness was associated with increased dementia risk; this tripled in adults whose baseline risk would otherwise be relatively low on the basis of age and genetic risk, representing a majority of the US population.
Why it matters
In 2,308 people from the Framingham Study, lonely adults had a higher 10-year risk of dementia, and lonely people with APOE4 alleles had about three times the risk. Loneliness was also linked to poorer executive function, suggesting it may be an early marker of vulnerability, though this is an observational cohort study and cannot prove cause and effect.
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70/100
Using datasets from a wide range of geographical regions, we found that both early life education and adulthood occupational complexity were independently predictive of dementia.
Why it matters
This collaborative cohort study of 10,195 participants found that both education and occupational complexity were independently associated with increased dementia-free survival time, with 28% of the education effect mediated by occupational complexity. It suggests that mental engagement in early and adult life may help delay dementia, but it does not show a treatment or cure.
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Prediabetes was positively associated with risk of all-cause mortality and the incidence of cardiovascular outcomes, CHD, stroke, chronic kidney disease, cancer and dementia.
Why it matters
This review of meta-analyses found that prediabetes was linked to higher risk of death and conditions such as heart and kidney disease. It did not report a specific link to dementia, so it does not show that treating prediabetes prevents or cures Alzheimer's disease.
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Existing studies have included a narrow range of infectious diseases, relied on short follow-up periods, and provided little evidence for whether the increased risk is limited to specific dementia subtypes or attributable to specific microbes rather than infection burden.
Why it matters
This large observational study found that hospital treatment for severe infections was associated with a long-term increased risk of dementia, including vascular dementia and Alzheimer's disease, and that the association was not limited to infections of the central nervous system. It shows an association only and does not prove that preventing or treating infections would prevent Alzheimer's disease.
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Depression, anxiety, and apathy symptoms are highly prevalent across dementia stages.
Why it matters
This meta-analysis found that depression, anxiety, and apathy symptoms are common across all stages of dementia, affecting roughly a third to over half of people. It found no evidence that these symptom rates change with dementia stage or type.
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This study provides a quantitative synthesis of the prospective associations between personality traits (neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, conscientiousness) and the risk of incident Alzheimer's disease and related dementias.
Why it matters
This meta-analysis found that higher neuroticism and lower conscientiousness were linked to increased dementia risk, even after accounting for depressive symptoms, while links for extraversion, openness, and agreeableness were less robust. It identifies personality traits associated with risk but does not show that changing personality prevents dementia.
From across this topic
9 of the 7,967 studies in this topic, picked by a fixed rule (a hash of each study's address), not by score or date; each page of this list shows a different 9. The same 9 appear here every time.
- Oxidative stress in brain aging. Implications for therapeutics of neurodegenerative diseases
- Delirium management in 2024: A status check and evolution in clinical practice since 2016
- Co-designing a model of palliative care for people with advanced dementia
- Depression duration but not age predicts hippocampal volume loss in medically healthy women with recurrent major depression
- Schizophrenia and dementia across the lifespan: epidemiological links, cognitive trajectories, and the pathophysiological interplay
- Whole Brain Segmentation
- Validation of the 4AT for assessing recovery from delirium in older hospital patients
- Impact of molecular imaging on the diagnostic process in a memory clinic
- Shared decision‐making on a ‘life‐and‐care plan’ in long‐term care facilities: research protocol