It is well-established that most cases of late-onset dementia are due to a combination of non-modifiable (e.g. age, sex, ApoE4) and modifiable (e.g. lifestyle) risk factors. In particular, evidence suggests that modifying cardiovascular risk factors at an individual level through lifestyle changes, such as smoking cessation, and managing diabetes and hypertension, can reduce dementia risk. However, some risk factors can only feasibly be modified at a societal level, such as air pollution and area deprivation. This means people are often exposed to multiple risk factors, making it important to consider how these factors collectively influence dementia risk. Despite this, very few studies have investigated how non-modifiable and societal risk factors interact with lifestyle behaviours and health factors to influence dementia risk and brain health.
Therefore, the objective of this study is to explore how non-modifiable and societal risk factors influence the relationship between modifiable, individual risk factors and dementia risk. We propose the following aims:
1. To investigate how non-modifiable risk factor burden (e.g. ApoE, age, sex) moderates the association between cardiovascular risk factors and incident dementia, as well as MRI brain volumes
2. To investigate how societal risk factor burden (e.g. air pollution, area deprivation) moderates the association between cardiovascular risk factors and incident dementia, as well as MRI brain volumes