A newly published study in the journal Nature Communications identifies several lifestyle factors that may accelerate cognitive decline. Study: Healthy lifestyle and cognitive decline in middle-aged and older adults residing in 14 European countries . Image Credit: Josep Suria / Shutterstock.
com Many behavioral and lifestyle factors are potential determinants of the pace of cognitive aging and risk of dementia, some of which include exercise, smoking, drinking, and sleep patterns. These factors may act independently or together to affect cognitive aging trajectories. Typically, research studying the link between cognitive decline and lifestyle patterns primarily utilizes healthy lifestyle indices, which do not consider individual behaviors and assume an equal contribution of all healthy behaviors to cognitive function.
As a result, these studies cannot be relied upon solely when designing interventions. Thus, additional studies are needed to better understand how specific behavioral factors combine to affect cognitive decline. Prodromal dementia symptoms can influence behavioral patterns many years before clinical diagnosis, which further emphasizes the importance of these studies.
Identifying risk factors for cognitive decline in individuals not yet experiencing disease-related symptoms is also crucial. The current study used up to 15 years of longitudinal data on 32,000 adults to elucidate the relationship between lifestyle factors and cognitive decline. Data were obtained .