In 2020, leading members of IRNDP and international academics came together to discuss the future directions for dementia risk reduction. Together they identified the areas where more research is needed.
They highlighted a need for more research in populations from
- wider geographical locations, different climates and cultures
- in specific population groups such as indigenous or neuro-diverse populations
- in men, women, older and younger populations
- in contempory populations
We also need to know more about how and when dementia risk factors act to increase the risk of dementia
for example,
- what are the biological mechanisms that drive the influence of each risk factor?
- does it matter when in our lifetimes that we are exposed to different risk factors?
- do different combinations of risk or protective factors have different impacts?
- How do we build resilience?
And how much do all of these things matter for different dementia types or different combinations of dementia types?