What do young Australian adults know about modifiable risk factors for dementia?
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(Published version)
Date
2021
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Keage, H.A.D.
Villani, G.
Hutchinson, A.D.
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Journal article
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BMC Public Health, 2021; 21(1)
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<h4>Background</h4>There are well established modifiable risk factors for late-life dementia. These risk factors account for over 30% of population attributable dementia risk and accrue over the lifespan. Young adults have the greatest potential to reduce their own risk for dementia. This study aimed to investigate what young Australian adults know about dementia and its risk factors, and further, how they estimated these risks.<h4>Methods</h4>An online survey promoted through various social media platforms was completed by 604 young Australian adults aged 18-44 years of age.<h4>Results</h4>Seventy percent of participants had a limited understanding of dementia (identifying cognitive or functional impairment), 25% had a good understanding, with 5% having no understanding. Twenty percent of respondents thought there were no modifiable risk factors for dementia. Less the half of participants agreed with two of the nine established dementia risk factors (hearing loss in midlife and education in early life), with over half of participants agreeing to the remaining seven risk factors. Females consistently judged the risks conferred by the nine established dementia risk factors to be higher than males. Those who were lonely judged the dementia risk conferred by loneliness to be higher than those who were not lonely; and smokers judged the dementia risk conferred by smoking to be less than non-smokers.<h4>Conclusion</h4>Young adults have the greatest potential to change their dementia risk, and these findings show that there are important gaps in knowledge of dementia and its risk factors in this group.
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Data source: Supplementary information, https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-12220-7
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Copyright 2021 The author(s). This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)