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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Hypertension-associated cerebral small vessel disease is a common finding in older people.
Why it matters
This review describes hypertension-associated cerebral small vessel disease, found at autopsy in over 50% of people aged 65 years and older, as a major source of vascular contributions to cognitive impairment and dementia. It addresses a vascular contributor to dementia and does not test a treatment, cure, or prevention for Alzheimer's disease.
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Previous hypothesis-driven research has identified many risk factors linked to dementia.
Why it matters
This UK Biobank analysis examined 210 modifiable risk factors and their joint association with dementia risk over 15 years of follow-up. It identifies risk factors and composite scores, so it does not show that changing them prevents or treats Alzheimer's disease.
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The MIND diet is associated with both higher cognition and slower rates of cognitive decline, after controlling for neuropathology, indicating the MIND diet may be important to cognitive resilience.
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59/100
This study aimed to investigate the longitudinal association between decreased lung function and cognitive brain health and to explore underlying biological and brain structural mechanisms.
Why it matters
This large study examined whether people with lower lung function are more likely to develop dementia later on. It also explored possible biological and brain structure reasons for any link, which could help explain how lung health relates to brain health.
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Performance was assessed in comparison to clinical diagnosis (blinded to plasma results) and amyloid status (CSF/PET).
Why it matters
This study assessed blood-based biomarkers in a memory clinic cohort and found that 14% false-negative results mean further improvement is needed before use outside memory clinics. It is a diagnostic study and does not report any treatment, cure, or prevention of Alzheimer's disease.
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Among the 12 biomarkers, only pTau was higher in frail individuals than in their not-frail peers (471.3 ± 58.1 pg/mL vs. 451.9 ± 61.1 pg/mL, p = 0.022).
Why it matters
Among 12 blood markers, only pTau was higher in frail older adults than in those not frail, and it was linked to low grip strength, exhaustion, and low physical activity. The study only describes an association with frailty and does not test any treatment, cure, or prevention.
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Delirium and dementia are two frequent causes of cognitive impairment among older adults and have a distinct, complex and interconnected relationship.
Why it matters
This review describes delirium as an independent risk factor for subsequently developing dementia, and notes that delirium in people with dementia can accelerate cognitive decline. It suggests that preventing delirium might represent a modifiable way to reduce or prevent long-term cognitive impairment, though this is a proposed approach rather than a proven treatment.
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Tauopathies are both clinical and pathological heterogeneous disorders characterized by neuronal and/or glial accumulation of misfolded tau protein.
Why it matters
This review describes the range of clinical syndromes linked to tau pathology and notes that new biomarkers may improve diagnosis in living patients. It concerns diagnosis, not treatment, cure, or prevention.
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HZ vaccination is associated with reduced risk of dementia.
Why it matters
In two large retrospective cohorts, herpes zoster vaccination was associated with significantly lower risk of incident dementia compared with no vaccination. Because this is an observational study, it cannot prove that the vaccine causes the lower risk, but it supports further research into vaccination as a possible prevention approach.
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The COVID-19 pandemic forced adult day services (ADS) to close and abruptly end in-person services to clients.
Why it matters
This survey found that most adult day service sites closed during COVID-19, furloughed or terminated staff, and provided some services without reimbursement. It describes service disruption, not any treatment, cure, or prevention for Alzheimer's disease.
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Type 2 diabetes is associated with increased risks of cognitive dysfunction and brain abnormalities.
Why it matters
In people with type 2 diabetes, this study looked at whether having more risk factors (like blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar) within target range was linked to better brain health and lower dementia risk. It suggests that managing these factors may help, but it does not prove that doing so prevents dementia.
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The traditional Mediterranean diet (MedDiet), rich in minimally processed plant foods and fish, has been widely recognized to be one of the healthiest diets.
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Parkinson disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder, affecting >1% of the population ≥65 years of age and with a prevalence set to double by 2030.
Why it matters
This review describes cognitive impairment in Parkinson disease, including risk factors for progression to dementia and the fact that cholinesterase inhibition is the only treatment with high-level evidence. It notes that the mechanisms underlying cognitive decline in Parkinson disease remain largely unclear and that disease-modifying therapies are still being sought.
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Although, anatomical disparities of the rodent medial prefrontal cortex compared to the primate homologue are apparent, current rodent models have effectively implicated the medial prefrontal cortex as a neural substrate of cognitive decline within ageing and dementia.
Why it matters
This review describes evidence that altered connectivity in the medial prefrontal cortex and default mode network is seen in aging and in conditions such as Alzheimer's disease. It reports no treatment or cure and is based largely on cross-sectional studies.
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The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a large and dramatic shift to video-based telehealth use in home-based primary care.
Why it matters
This survey found that more than one-third of homebound older patients engaged in video-based telehealth during the first COVID-19 surge, most needing caregiver assistance, and that many were deemed unable to interact over video or lacked caregiver access. It is about barriers to telehealth access and does not test any treatment, cure, or prevention for Alzheimer's disease.
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Of 7170 prescreened papers, 12 met the inclusion criteria.
Why it matters
This review of 12 papers found that voice-based conversational agents show encouraging accuracy and acceptance, but there is still a need for more conclusive evidence on their effectiveness for preventing and managing chronic and mental health conditions. It is about a technology for health management and does not provide evidence on treating, curing or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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This study did not find evidence to suggest that the ratio of dementia risk across Black and White individuals changed in the US between 2000 and 2016.
Why it matters
This study found stable or declining dementia risk overall but no evidence that the ratio of dementia risk between Black and White individuals changed in the US between 2000 and 2016. It addresses racial disparities in dementia occurrence, not treatment, cure or prevention.
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Sidewalks are indispensable environmental resources for daily life in that they encourage physical activity.
Why it matters
This study found that living in neighborhoods with more sidewalk coverage was associated with a lower incidence of dementia in older Japanese adults. It is an observational study, so it cannot prove that sidewalks cause less dementia, but it suggests that neighborhood environment may be relevant for prevention.
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This cross-sectional study found a strong correlation between age of onset of PD and dietary habits, suggesting that nutritional strategies may be an effective tool to delay PD onset.
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59/100
Human DNA methylation data have been used to develop biomarkers of ageing, referred to as 'epigenetic clocks', which have been widely used to identify differences between chronological age and biological age in health and disease including neurodegeneration, dementia and other brain phenotypes.
Why it matters
This study developed a new epigenetic clock for human cortex tissue to measure biological ageing in the brain. It suggests that some previous links between predicted DNA methylation age and neurodegenerative conditions might be false positives from clocks not calibrated to the tissue tested, but it does not test any treatment, cure or prevention.
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From molecular mechanisms to global brain networks, atypical fluctuations are the hallmark of neurodegeneration.
Why it matters
A machine learning pipeline based on dynamic connectivity fluctuation analysis of resting-state fMRI data from 300 participants classified behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer's disease patients against healthy controls, with the most affected network pairs reaching a mean accuracy of 86.43%. This multicenter study concerns diagnosis only and does not test treating, curing or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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From 11 295 literature citations associated with 10 PICO questions, 20 relevant studies were identified.
Why it matters
This clinical guideline identified 20 relevant studies from 11,295 literature citations on medical care of adults with Down syndrome. It provides no findings in the given text about treating, curing, or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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Sleep is evolutionarily conserved across all species, and impaired sleep is a common trait of the diseased brain.
Why it matters
This review proposes that failure of the brain's sleep-dependent waste-clearance system may be a shared pathway across many forms of dementia. It is a synthesized hypothesis backed largely by animal studies, not a proven causal chain in humans.
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Older people with diabetes receiving metformin have slower cognitive decline and lower dementia risk.
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59/100
Increased BPSD was reported in 59.6% of patients as worsening of preexisting symptoms (51.9%) or as new onset (26%), and requested drug modifications in 27.6% of these cases.
Why it matters
This survey of caregivers found that during COVID-19 quarantine, behavioral and psychological symptoms worsened in many patients with dementia, with different patterns depending on the type of dementia. It does not test any treatment or cure for Alzheimer's disease; it documents how an external stress like lockdown affected symptoms and caregiver stress.
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.
- End-of Life Care Disparities Experienced by American Indian and Alaska Natives Peoples: An Analysis of Data from the 2019 Medicare Master Beneficiary Summary File
- Maintain Your Brain: Protocol of a 3-Year Randomized Controlled Trial of a Personalized Multi-Modal Digital Health Intervention to Prevent Cognitive Decline Among Community Dwelling 55 to 77 Year Olds
- The Impact of Delirium on Hospitalized Patients With COPD Exacerbation: Insights From the National In-Patient Sample
- Mediterranean diet and cognitive decline
- Model Predicting Positive Aspects of Caregiving Among Family Cares of Persons With Dementia: A Longitudinal Cohort Study
- Study design of ASPirin in Reducing Events in the Elderly (ASPREE): a randomized, controlled trial
- At the extreme end of the psychoneuroimmunological spectrum: delirium as a maladaptive sickness behaviour response
- An Assessment of Nature-Based Solutions Water Infrastructure for Flood Risk Reduction in Unplanned Area
- Memantine for dementia
- The Effect of E-commerce on Grocery Store Choice and Retail Competition