Approved Research

Understanding associations between psychological wellbeing and dementia-related outcomes

Lay summary

Over a third of dementia cases result from a combination of lifestyle factors that can be changed. Research into modifiable lifestyle factors could therefore help to prevent many cases of dementia.

Psychological wellbeing is the combination of feeling good and functioning well. Though negative psychological states (depression and anxiety) are now well recognised as risk factors for dementia, we don't know whether wellbeing may protect against developing dementia. The main aim of this project is to test links between wellbeing and cognition (how we think and learn) in older age and dementia.

To do this, we plan to focus on testing three key areas:

(1)         Whether wellbeing is linked with cognition and dementia over time;

(2)         Whether wellbeing is linked with dementia-related changes in the brain;

(3)         Whether links between wellbeing and dementia outcomes are causal.

This project will last for approximately 36 months and will generate new knowledge about associations between wellbeing and dementia and whether intervention for wellbeing can have benefit as a potential dementia prevention activity. This will have implications for the development of more accurate predictive models for dementia, the identification of people at increased risk of cognitive impairment, and the adaptation of interventions for wellbeing to optimise them as targets for dementia prevention.