Brain health continues to improve for the older US population, according to new special issue edited by ISR researchers

December 2, 2024

ANN ARBOR — Two new studies — including one internationally focused — find that indicators of brain health continued to improve in recent years for the older U.S. population. However, gains appear smaller in the U.S. than in England and European countries.

These key findings were published  in a new supplemental issue of the Journals of Gerontology: Medical Sciences highlighting new perspectives on dementia and related population health trends.

Three researchers from the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research (ISR), Vicki Freedman, Josh Ehrlich, and Lindsay Kobayashi, co-edited the issue, along with Neil Mehta from the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB).

“The two studies differed in important ways — they used data from different samples and age groups,” said Mehta, a professor in epidemiology at UTMB.  “The studies also used different assessments of brain health, with one assessing dementia and the other assessing memory function. But together they highlight the valuable insights that we can gain from conducting careful studies of trends.”

In one study, investigators found that between 2011 and 2021, dementia became less common in the United States among adults ages 72 and older and that declines were faster for the 2011-21 period than they were through 2019. In the other study, memory function improved among older adults (ages 75 and above) in the U.S. between 2008-18, but their counterparts in England and Europe experienced even greater improvement in memory function over the same time period.

“Taken together, the issue underscores the importance of continuing to characterize the epidemiology of late-life dementia and related care trends,” said Freedman, a research professor at ISR and the director of the Michigan Center on the Demography of Aging (MiCDA). “It also highlights cross-cutting methodological challenges in this work.”  

In an accompanying commentary, Freedman and Mengyao Hu, associate professor at University of Texas Health Houston, highlighted one of those challenges — the fact that national studies designed to assess dementia trends may visit participants repeatedly.  

“Resulting ‘practice’ effects can make it appear that memory improves and cloud trends if not properly addressed,” Freedman said. 

The special issue contains four additional articles covering topics related to past and future trends in care for older adults in several high- and middle-income countries. In addition, the issue includes a commentary on dementia and related care in low- and middle-income countries by Ehrlich and Kobayashi.

“We see important new opportunities and challenges for studying dementia and dementia trends in lower and middle income countries where substantial data gaps remain related to dementia, and care-related outcomes.” said Ehrlich, associate professor in the University of Michigan’s Department of Ophthalmology and research associate professor at ISR. 

“Efforts such as the Harmonized Cognitive Assessment Protocol Network and Gateway to Global Aging Data are underway to bridge this data gap, so that researchers will soon be able to study dementia trends globally, including in lower- and middle-income countries,” said Kobayashi, associate professor in the Department of Epidemiology and faculty affiliate at ISR. 
The issue is an outgrowth of the 2023 MiCDA TRENDS network meeting and was prepared with funding from the National Institutes of Health (National Institute on Aging grant P30AG012846). The views expressed are those of the authors and do not represent the views of the National Institutes of Health. The full issue is available here via Oxford Academic.

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