On Nov. 15, 2024, the AARP, the Alzheimer’s Disease Data Initiative (AD Data Initiative), and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington announced the Dementia Risk Reduction Project, a new collaboration to study how factors – air pollution, alcohol use, depression, diabetes, high body mass index, hearing loss, hypertension, low education, physical inactivity, social isolation, smoking, and traumatic brain injury—vary by state and their correlation to dementia.

The Dementia Risk Reduction Project also released research findings of three of the twelve risk factors that the collaboration is studying:

Diabetes: Elevated fasting plasma glucose (FPG) levels, a marker of diabetes, are linked to an increased risk of dementia, with an approximately 25% increase in risk even at prediabetes levels and a 50% increase in risk at the threshold for diabetes diagnosis. As blood glucose levels increase further, dementia risk continues to rise.

Smoking: Current smokers consuming five cigarettes per day have a 16% higher dementia risk than non-smokers.

Air Pollution: Prolonged exposure to air pollution significantly raises dementia risk, emphasizing the need for policies to reduce pollution and safeguard brain health.

Dementia affects over 55 million people globally, including almost 5 million in the U.S. The disease has profound impacts on families, loved ones, and caregivers. Despite ongoing research, much is still unknown about environmental, health, lifestyle, and other factors that may influence dementia risk.