Feature picture. Well-being of ageing individuals decreases the risk of dementia. The presence of multisensory stimulating activities are also protective. The multi-colour of Japanese kois can evoke positive cognitive stimulating responses in the many who are fond of these kois.
World Happiness Report 2024 has key insights to offer on dementia prevention
In Chapter 4 of the World Happiness Report, the authors Karysa Britton, Kyrsten Hill, and Emily Willroth provided four key insights on associations between well-being and delayed onset and progression of dementia. These are:
- 1-Ageing of global population of older adults will result in a steady increase of worldwide dementia cases.
- 2-Dementia is associated with reduced quality of life and poorer well-being.
- 3-Higher levels of well-being have research evidence to be strongly associated with lower risk of future dementia. This implies that achieving high levels of well-being may be a promising non-drug approach to dementia prevention.
- 4-Also, among individuals living with dementia, changes in the environment and activities that promote autonomy, competence, and relatedness are shown to improve well-being.
What can we do? The answer is we can do a lot.
- Acting on the key insight that higher levels of well-being can support memory and thinking abilities as well as lower risk for later dementia, we can work on the following four cognition stages to lessen the speed of dementia progression into the future:
- 1-Healthy cognition stage — At this stage, higher well-being maintains healthy cognition and lowers risk for future dementia.
- 2-Pre-symptomatic stage — At this stage, higher well-being protects cognition from dementia-related brain dysfunction.
- 3-Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) stage — At this stage, higher well-being may slow cognitive decline.
- 4-Dementia stage–At this stage, well-being-enhancing activities and supportive environments can still help to maintain the well-being of people living with dementia.
Figure 1 shows there are at least 8 activities & interventions that can help to maintain the well-being of people progressing into dementia.
- The following paragraphs of information are extracted from Table 4.2 in Chapter 4 of World Happiness Report:(Page 14 of 42) (Reference 1). They dwell on the 8 activities and interventions that matter:
- 1-Physicial activity — Benefits are: improved mood, sleep, and cognition; decreased agitation; increased mobility and functional ability. Evidence level: Consistent evidence supporting benefits.
- 2-Outdoor activities (e.g., gardening) — Benefits are: increased life satisfaction, engagement, and enjoyment; decreased agitation. Evidence level: Mixed evidence.
- 3-Literature or Story telling — Benefits are: increased positive effect and life satisfaction; increased meaning, engagement, and pleasure; improved communication. Evidence level: Mixed evidence.
- 4-Animal facilitated therapy — Benefits are: improved mood; improved verbalizations. Consistent evidence supporting benefits.
- 5-Cultural Arts interventions (e.g., music, dance, and visual arts interventions) — Benefits are: improved mood; increased quality of life, meaning, and engagement; decreased agitation and aggressive behaviours; enhanced communication; positive impacts on cognitive processes; decreased anxiety. Consistent evidence supporting benefits; methodology has been critized.
- 6-Montessori-based activities — Benefits are: increased engagement and positive effect; improved eating behaviours; benefits for memory and attention. Evidence level: Mixed evidence.
- 7-Remininiscence and life review — Benefits are: improved mood and well-being; improved autobiographical memory. Evidence level: Consistent evidence supporting benefits.
- 8-Social engagement/support groups — Benefits are: increased well-being; foster a sense of belonging; provide coping strategies; improved self esteem. Evidence level: Consistent evidence supporting benefits.
Take home messages
1-Attention to cognitive stimulating activities (CSA) such as the 8 activities/interventions described in this post will delay the risk of dementia and its speed of progression in the years to to come.
2-Try out the CSA today.
3-Make them the new habitual behaviours.
Reference and further reading
1-World Happiness Report 2024. Karysa Britton, Krystan C Hill, Emily C Willroth. URL: https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2024/ Acessed 26 April 2024.
Dr LG Goh
Dr GOH Lee Gan is a retired Associate Professor in the Department of Family Medicine, National University Health System. He has an interest in learning and teaching how we can age well everyday (AWE).
