New Delhi: A new analysis of dementia public health campaigns in eight countries, including Australia, the US, and China, has suggested that engaging, personalised, and community-driven approaches are needed to genuinely influence behaviour change and reduce dementia risk.
The neurodegenerative condition affects 57 million people globally and the figure is forecast to triple by 2050, substantially burdening families, health systems and economies, researchers from Australia’s Curtin University said.
Nearly half of global dementia cases are preventable, simply by tackling modifiable risk factors, including physical inactivity, smoking, high LDL cholesterol and depression, a study published in The Lancet journal in August 2024 said.
However, public health approaches are falling short of driving real behaviour change, the researchers said.
The analysis of population-level interventions — focussed on communicating dementia-specific risk reduction and prevention messaging — found that while large-scale health awareness campaigns can reach wide audiences, they often lead to only small improvements in knowledge and limited changes in behaviour.
“Educational and interactive interventions, including personalised risk profiling, online courses, e-learning programmes, and community-based approaches, showed more consistent improvements in knowledge and risk-reducing behaviours,” the authors wrote.
They said the most promising intervention combined risk assessment with a structured education, achieving a 26 per cent improvement in modifiable risk factors over three years.
Co-author Blossom Stephan, chair in dementia at Curtin University’s enAble Institute, said many people still did not realise dementia risk could be reduced.
“There is still a widespread belief that dementia is an unavoidable part of ageing, which is not the case,” Stephan said.
“But even when people are aware of the risks, barriers such as time, cost and motivation can prevent them from making changes to their lifestyle,” the co-author said.
Overall, interventions requiring an active engagement were found to produce stronger behavioural effects, compared to passive information-only approaches.
The findings highlight the potential value of combining risk communication with tailored educational content to optimise engagement and behavioural impact, the researchers said.
Author Mario Siervo, from Curtin University’s school of population health, said the findings showed a clear gap between what people know and what they do.
“Up to 45 per cent of dementia cases are linked to modifiable factors we can change, such as our lifestyle, health status and environment,” Siervo said.
“But simply telling people what those risks are isn’t enough; awareness campaigns are important, but on their own they rarely lead to meaningful or lasting behaviour change,” the author said.
Siervo added that a second new study conducted by the group has provided further evidence on the relevance of modifiable risk factors for dementia.
The results, published in journal Clinical Nutrition, indicated that muscle strength and body composition play a significant role in dementia risk, highlighting the need for more targeted prevention approaches.
The research, led by researchers at Curtin University, followed nearly 5,00,000 adults over more than a decade and found that people with both low muscle strength and excess body fat — known as sarcopenic obesity — had a higher risk of developing dementia.
In contrast, obesity on its own was not associated with increased dementia risk if muscle strength was preserved, which the researchers said highlighted the importance of muscle health alongside maintaining an optimal body composition in dementia prevention.
