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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Sleep is a fundamental biological process with broad implications for physical and mental health, yet its complex relationship with disease remains poorly understood.
Why it matters
This study developed a multimodal sleep foundation model trained on over 585,000 hours of polysomnography recordings that could predict 130 conditions, including dementia, from one night of sleep with a C-Index of 0.85. It is a prediction tool based on sleep data, not a treatment, cure, or prevention for Alzheimer's disease.
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Music Interventions for Dementia and Depression in Elderly care was a large, multinational, cluster-randomised controlled trial with a 2 × 2 factorial design to examine the effects of group music therapy, recreational choir singing, or both compared with standard care.
Why it matters
In this large trial of 751 residents, neither group music therapy nor recreational choir singing significantly improved depression scores at 6 months. The study found no significant effect of either music intervention compared with standard care.
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Mean (SD) follow-up was 4.8 (2.6) years.
Why it matters
In 298 people with subjective cognitive decline, blood levels of pTau217 and GFAP were higher in those who were amyloid-positive, and the study suggests these markers track with progression. This is an observational cohort study, so it does not show that measuring these blood markers prevents or treats Alzheimer's disease.
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A total of 368 participants were included (median [IQR] age, 58 [50-65] years; 71% were female, 27% were Black, 6% were Hispanic, and 61% were White; median [IQR] BMI, 32.3 [28.5-37.1]).
Why it matters
This trial compared an AI-led Diabetes Prevention Program with human coaching in adults with prediabetes and overweight or obesity, and the AI-led program was noninferior for a composite outcome based on weight reduction, physical activity and HbA1c. It does not address Alzheimer's disease treatment, cure or prevention.
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AS01-adjuvanted shingles (herpes zoster) vaccination is associated with a lower risk of dementia, but the underlying mechanisms are unclear.
Why it matters
This cohort study found that AS01-adjuvanted shingles and respiratory syncytial virus vaccines, individually or combined, were associated with reduced 18-month risk of dementia. No difference was observed between the two AS01-adjuvanted vaccines, suggesting that the AS01 adjuvant itself may play a direct role in lowering dementia risk.
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The pooled sample comprised 4657 participants (30% women) aged ≥ 60 years (mean age was 74 years at sleep assessment).
Why it matters
Pooled analysis of five cohorts found no association between sleep architecture and incident dementia, with only a marginal association for higher N3% in a restricted analysis. The authors note that more nuanced sleep metrics and examination of dementia subtypes remain important next steps.
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One million nine hundred twenty-five thousand, five hundred sixty-three individuals were included across the four databases with a median follow-up ranging from 5.6 to 8.4 years.
Why it matters
In this large multinational cohort, starting an ARB was associated with a reduced risk of all-cause dementia and vascular dementia compared with starting an ACEI, but not with a reduced risk of Alzheimer's disease. The authors suggest physicians and patients consider this in risk-benefit assessment when initiating antihypertensives.
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No significant difference between the three groups in ADAS-Cog was found at the primary endpoint at 15 months (CPR vs health advice, β= -0·04 [95% CI -0·34 to 0·26]; RFM vs health advice, β= -0·14 [-0·44 to 0·15]; CPR vs RFM, β=0·10 [-0·19 to 0·40]) nor at the 6-month and 12-month follow-ups.
Why it matters
This three-arm trial found no significant difference in cognition between combined mind-body exercise, cognitive training and risk factor modification, risk factor modification alone, and health advice at 15 months or at earlier follow-ups. The interventions tested did not clearly improve cognition in people with mild cognitive impairment.
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Among 228 392 participants from UKB (n = 137 374; mean [SD] age at baseline, 62.5 [4.1] years; 53.8% female) and AOU (n = 91 018; mean [SD] age at baseline, 66.9 [7.8] years; 57.1% female), those with a history of a clinical exposure at baseline had higher dementia incidence rates compared with those without such history.
Why it matters
This study found that people with various clinical conditions had a higher short-term likelihood of being diagnosed with dementia, likely because they were more likely to be tested or seen by doctors. This detection bias means that studies using electronic health records may overestimate the link between certain exposures and dementia.
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Of 733 participants (mean age 82.5 ± 2.9 years), 164 (22.4%) developed MCI and 93 (12.7%) developed dementia by the follow-up visit.
Why it matters
Among 733 community-dwelling women in their 80s followed for 5 years, those with increasing 24-hour sleepiness had about double the risk of dementia compared with those with stable sleep, while neither sleep-wake change profiles nor individual sleep parameters were associated with mild cognitive impairment. The authors suggest that changes in 24-hour sleep-wake activity may serve as an early marker or risk factor for dementia, not as a treatment or cure.
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A total of 162 studies were included, with 88 (54.3%) exploring potential risk factors and 74 (45.7%) examining specific risk factors.
Why it matters
This methodological study examined how observational studies adjust for confounding when investigating multiple risk factors, and found that most used a method that might cause overadjustment bias and misleading estimates. It is about improving how risk factor research is conducted, not about treating, curing, or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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Among 5390 participants (mean [SD] age, 76.9 [4.8] years; 2915 women [54.1%]), there were 2655 individuals (49.3%) with less than 12 years of education.
Why it matters
This case-control study found that people who developed dementia had lower BMI and waist circumference up to a decade before diagnosis compared with controls. It describes cardiometabolic trajectories preceding dementia and does not test any treatment, cure, or prevention for Alzheimer's disease.
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A total of 20 relevant studies involving 44,893 individuals were included in the analysis.
Why it matters
This analysis of 20 studies found that closer adherence to a Mediterranean diet was linked to less white matter hyperintensity, a marker of small vessel damage in the brain. However, it found no significant link between the diet and total brain volume, gray matter volume, white matter volume, or hippocampal volume, and the authors say more research is needed.
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Metformin might correlate with a lower dementia incidence in people with T2DM.
Why it matters
This meta-analysis of 20 cohort studies with over 3 million participants found that people with type 2 diabetes who take metformin were linked to a lower incidence of all-cause dementia compared with non-users and sulfonylureas, but not compared with thiazolidinedione. The authors note the findings should be interpreted cautiously, and the study does not show that metformin treats or cures dementia.
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Our pilot studies (National Institutes of Health [NIH] stage 1A) have shown that MHB is feasible, acceptable, and associated with improvement in lifestyle behavior and cognitive outcomes.
Why it matters
This is a protocol for a feasibility trial of a mindfulness-based lifestyle intervention in 50 older adults with subjective cognitive decline and dementia risk factors. No results on whether the intervention reduces dementia risk are available yet.
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The online SiD decision aid increased preparation for decision making about firearm access in this sample of ADRD caregivers in the United States.
Why it matters
The online Safety in Dementia tool significantly increased caregivers' preparation for decision making about firearm access compared with a control, but had no significant effect on self-reported action to reduce access. This is a decision-support finding for caregivers, not a treatment for Alzheimer's disease.
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Currently available literature shows limited information on aging in RGNDs, with relatively many reports of young-onset dementia.
Why it matters
This review found reports of dementia in 49 adults across 14 rare genetic neurodevelopmental disorders, with a mean age at onset of 44.4 years. It shows how little is known about dementia in these conditions, since diagnostic methods were undisclosed for about half of the reported individuals.
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The combinations of pathologies of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias associated with cognitive and motor decline and their onsets of associations varied; only tau tangles, Parkinson's disease pathology, and macroinfarcts were associated with decline of all three phenotypes.
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Knowledge gained from cohort studies has dramatically advanced both public and precision health.
Why it matters
This study compared the characteristics of participants in the All of Us Research Program with the US general population and the UK Biobank. It aims to help researchers understand this cohort for future research, but does not itself test any treatment, cure, or prevention for Alzheimer's disease.
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Both participant and study partner CFI increased over the duration of the study indicating worsening cognitive functioning.
Why it matters
In the A4 study, cognitive function worsened over time for both participants and study partners, and this did not differ by treatment group. The study found no significant treatment effect on these cognitive measures.
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After adjusting for various risk factors, participants with low socioeconomic status (vs high) had increased risk for early-onset dementia (3·38, 2·61-4·37), and overall lifestyle mediated 3·2% (1·8-5·7) of the association.
Why it matters
In this cohort, low socioeconomic status was associated with higher risk of early-onset dementia, and healthy lifestyle mediated only a small proportion of that association. The authors state that measures other than healthy lifestyle promotion to improve social determinants of health are warranted.
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In addition, the underlying mechanism and driven mediators are largely unknown.
Why it matters
In over 150,000 postmenopausal women, this study found that earlier age at menopause was linked to a higher risk of dementia. It suggests a possible risk factor, but it does not show that changing the timing of menopause or using any treatment prevents dementia.
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This comprehensive portrait of rural-urban differences in dementia care highlights possible geographically based inequities and can be used by researchers and decision makers to guide development of more equitable dementia care policies.
Why it matters
This systematic review of 38 studies found rural persons with dementia had higher mortality, fewer physician visits, more hospitalizations but shorter stays, higher antipsychotic use, lower home care use and higher nursing home use than urban persons. These are differences in care quality and access, not treatments, cures or prevention.
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Growing evidence suggests that fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) likely increases the risks of dementia, yet little is known about the relative contributions of different constituents.
Why it matters
This nationwide cohort study found that long-term exposure to fine particle air pollution and several of its chemical constituents was linked to higher rates of dementia and Alzheimer's disease. It identifies air pollution as a possible risk factor but does not test any treatment, cure, or prevention.
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Sunlight exposure had a J-shaped association with dementia risk.
From across this topic
10 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 10. The same 10 appear here every time.
- Dying with dementia in Medicare Advantage, Accountable Care Organizations, or traditional Medicare
- Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy in the Study of Speech and Language Impairment Across the Life Span: A Systematic Review
- Drivers with dementia: Forecasting the future
- When DLB, PD, and PSP masquerade as MSA: an autopsy study of 134 patients
- Persistent delirium predicts greater mortality
- MIND diet slows cognitive decline with aging
- Closing the Gap Between Observational Research and Randomized Controlled Trials for Prevention of Alzheimer Disease and Dementia
- Childhood socioeconomic status and adult brain size: childhood socioeconomic status influences adult hippocampal size
- Progressive structural alterations in the cerebral small vessel disease with cognitive impairment and vascular dementia
- Symptom burden, palliative care need and predictors of physical and psychological discomfort in two UK hospitals