Certain types of jobs could reduce dementia risk in old age, study claims

A new study suggests that people with mentally stimulating occupations are less likely to develop cognitive impairment and dementia in the later years of their lives.

The review, published in the Neurology journal, says certain jobs can contribute to a much lower risk of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) which can lower the likeliness of developing dementia. And these jobs involve cognitively stimulating environments, with the likes of teachers, university lecturers and workers in civil services among those considered 66% less likely to develop MCI, reports The Mirror.

The study work involved researchers from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health; the University of Pennsylvania, and Columbia University. According to them, the kind of jobs done by individuals in their thirties, forties, fifties and even sixties can determine their brain health and functionality in retirement.

Trine Holt Edwin, of Oslo University Hospital, shared his findings with online news site i. He said: "Our research shows that it is never too late, or a waste of time, to start learning something new.

"All cognitively demanding activities later in life contribute to strengthening one's cognitive reserve." The researchers had compared different age groups, including 30-65 years and clinically-diagnosed dementia patients above 70 years.

The study spanned more than 40 years and analysed individual careers while accounting for age, sex, education, income, baseline hypertension, obesity, diabetes, psychiatric impairment, hearing impairment, loneliness, smoking status, and physical inactivity.

But the data also accommodated variables such as income, lifestyle, age, gender and education. The report emphasised that individuals engaged in cognitively stimulating occupations during midlife exhibited a lower risk of MCI and dementia beyond the age of 70.

Brain professor David Raichlen, who specialises in human and evolutionary biology at the University of Southern California, has previously warned that people who sit for many hours a day, whether due to their lifestyle or job, are at a higher risk of dementia. Sitting for 10 hours a day, compared to nine hours, is said to be about a 10% increased risk of dementia.

And sitting for 12 hours a day can meant about a 60% increased risk of dementia, he told a Diary of a CEO podcast in February. He suggested the optimal amount of physical activity is 150 minutes a week.

But he said new neurons can be generated in key areas of the brain, associated with memory, and these "may be the key" to staving off neurodegenerative diseases that impact the ageing brain.

Meanwhile, a study from September 2023 in JAMA found that those not moving much for 10 hours or more a day might have a bigger chance of developing dementia.