Dementia cases could triple by 2050, according to the World Alzheimer Report 2015.
“Dementia is the new epidemic facing the Western world,” says Annette Fitzpatrick, research professor of Family Medicine and Epidemiology.
Staying fit and socially active may be the most important things people can do to delay the onset of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, Fitzpatrick says. Right now, we are still searching for effective drugs to treat dementia in older people, she notes.
Fitzpatrick is a co-investigator of the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA), which has followed 7,000 adults from ages 45 to 84 since 2000. It is funded by the NIH National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
One factor researchers are looking at is cognitive function. They’ve found differences in cognition by race/ ethnicity as well as by age, education, occupational status, household size, and other factors.
“There are many other cultural variables needing further study,” Fitzpatrick says, including quality of education and parents’ involvement in early childhood development. She hopes this research “will lead to a better understanding of the risk and ways to prevent dementia across cultures.”
In another effort, the UW is collaborating with Group Health Research Institute to understand better how the brain and body age over time. Adult Changes in Thought is a long-running study of thousands of older patients, funded by the National Institute of Aging and led by Drs. Eric Larson and Paul Crane.
It’s the world’s only study able to link outcomes for dementia and other aspects of aging with a wealth of medical, laboratory and pharmaceutical records. So far, among its many findings, the study has linked regular exercise to reduced risk of dementia and found that risk for dementia is tied to blood-sugar levels, even for people without diabetes.
Another major effort to understand dementia is led by Walter Kukull, professor of epidemiology, who directs the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center, based at SPH. The center collects and makes available to researchers detailed clinical data from about 30 Alzheimer Disease Centers across the United States.