Older people who have acquired positive beliefs about old age are less likely to be affected by dementiaaccording to results of a study in the scientific journal Plos One.
Researchers from the Yale School of Medicine in the United States conducted a 4-year study with 4,765 people with an average age of 72, who did not have dementia at the start of research to understand whether beliefs related to aging modify the risk of develop dementia in older people, including those who carry a high-risk gene, ApoE.
The E4 variant of the APOE gene has already been identified as a high risk factor for dementia. However, only 47% of APOE 4 carriers develop dementia. Why the remaining 53% never develop dementia is unknown.
Over the duration of the study, researchers found that carriers of APOE E4 with positive beliefs about aging had a risk of developing dementia by 2.7%, compared to a risk of 6.1% for people with negative beliefs about aging.
“We found that age-positive beliefs can reduce risk for one of the most established genetic risk factors for dementia,” said lead author Becca Levy. “This argues for a public health campaign against ageism and negative age beliefs.”
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