Abstract
Introduction: Little is known about risk factors of dementia in Latin American countries. We aimed to identify socio–demographic, health and lifestyle risk factors of incident dementia in Cuban older adults.Methods: Data were from 1,846 participants in the Cuban cohort of the 10/66 Dementia Research Group. Participants completed questionnaires, health examinations, and cognitive tests at baseline (2003–2006) and 4.5 years later (2007–2010). Associations between risk factors (baseline) and incident dementia (follow-up) were examined using logistic regression.Results: Just over 9% of participants developed dementia. Overall, older age and low physical activity were associated with incident dementia. In those 65–74 years of age, depression, stroke and low physical activity were associated with incident dementia. In those ≥75 years of age, low physical activity, never eating fish, and smoking were associated with incident dementia.Conclusions: Modifiable lifestyle factors play an important role in developing dementia in Cuban older adults. This knowledge opens up opportunities for preventive strategies.
Highlights
Little is known about risk factors of dementia in Latin American countries
Data from 1,846 participants without dementia at baseline were used for the current analyses (Figure 1)
The risk factors for which statistically significant associations were found with incident dementia, were predominantly health factors in the younger age group and lifestyle factors in the older age group
Summary
Little is known about risk factors of dementia in Latin American countries. Two-thirds of the people living with dementia live in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) [1]. Due to population aging and changing lifestyles, the prevalence of dementia risk factors such as midlife hypertension and diabetes is rapidly increasing in these countries [2, 3]. In 2015, 27.3 million people lived with dementia in LMIC. This number is projected to increase to 89.3 million in 2050 [1]. There is strong evidence that the dementia risk in populations can be lowered by reducing the prevalence of risk factors [5, 6]
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