A new study from Finland has found that signs of dementia may appear long before any memory or thinking problems are noticeable.
Researchers discovered that people who stop working or live alone—without having a clear medical reason—might already be showing early signs of brain changes related to dementia, even up to ten years before a diagnosis.
The study was carried out by researchers at the University of Eastern Finland and the University of Oulu.
They analyzed nationwide health and social records of more than 2,200 patients who were later diagnosed with different forms of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia, and vascular dementia.
These patients were compared to similar people without dementia, matched by age, gender, and location. The research was part of the DEGE-RWD project, led by Neurocenter Finland.
According to Doctoral Researcher Ave Kivisild, people who left the workforce without a known medical reason were more likely to develop dementia later on.
This early drop in work participation could be an important warning sign. It suggests that dementia might silently affect people’s ability to work years before doctors are able to diagnose it.
The study found several key patterns. Employment levels dropped significantly in all groups of people with dementia, starting as early as ten years before they were diagnosed. People with vascular dementia or with both Alzheimer’s and vascular dementia also tended to have lower levels of education than those without dementia.
Interestingly, this link between education and dementia risk was not found in cases of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease or frontotemporal dementia. This could mean that education may help protect against some types of dementia that occur later in life, but not the kinds that begin earlier.
Another finding was that people with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease—especially women—were more likely to live alone. However, marital status did not seem to differ much between people with frontotemporal dementia and those without dementia.
The researchers believe that social factors like being unemployed or living alone could be useful for spotting dementia risk early. These are called “social markers,” and they might reflect how early brain changes impact someone’s daily life before cognitive symptoms like memory loss appear.
Associate Professor Eino Solje, the lead investigator of the study, explained that dementia-related changes in the brain often begin decades before symptoms show up.
The study suggests these changes might affect a person’s job performance or social life long before memory problems are detected. If doctors and researchers pay attention to these early signs, they may be able to identify and help at-risk individuals sooner.
One strength of the study is the quality of its data. All patients were diagnosed by expert neurologists at university hospital memory clinics, which makes the results especially reliable. The research used a large set of real-world health and social records, making it one of the most robust studies of its kind.
This study was published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association. It is part of a larger project that combines data from many sources and brings together researchers from multiple fields, including medicine and law.
This kind of teamwork makes it easier to look at dementia from different perspectives and find new ways to fight it.
If you care about brain health, please read studies about inflammation that may actually slow down cognitive decline in older people, and low vitamin D may speed up cognitive decline.
For more health information, please see recent studies about common exercises that could protect against cognitive decline, and results showing this MIND diet may protect your cognitive function, prevent dementia.
The study is published in Alzheimer s & Dementia.
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