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UrduThe new report, available here, is based on a deep analysis of research to date, and is an update from the 2020 Lancet Commission report on the same topic.
The new report adds vision loss as a risk factor for dementia, and notes the importance of correcting vision with lenses or surgery. This addition is based in part on the work of Joshua Ehrlich, M.D., M.P.H., an ophthalmologist at U-M Health and health services researcher at U-M’s Medical School.
“It’s great to see that that the Commission is acknowledging the important influence of vision loss on late-life cognitive health and dementia. The inclusion of vision loss in the Commission’s model is likely to bring greater attention to this important and highly modifiable dementia risk factor,” says Ehrlich.
The new report also cites multiple papers authored by Ken Langa, M.D., Ph.D., a general internist and longtime dementia prevention researcher at the U-M Medical School and Institute for Social Research. One of those papers, written with fellow U-M researcher Elham Mahmoudi, Ph.D., is on the link between hearing aids and delays in the onset of dementia.
“This update to prior reports from the Lancet Commission re-emphasizes the very optimistic news that the risk of dementia can be significantly reduced when individuals focus on a living a healthy lifestyle and when public policies facilitate access to high-quality education for all children and young adults,” says Langa. “All the preventive lifestyle interventions identified in the new report are attractive because they are low-cost, don’t have negative side-effects, and have wide-ranging positive effects on health quality of life. That makes them quite different than new medications for Alzheimer’s disease which are quite costly and come with rare but dangerous side effects.”
