Where You Live Could Raise Dementia Risk, Landmark U.S. Study Warns

A JAMA Neurology analysis of nearly one million older veterans shows geography itself can tilt the odds of dementia. After adjusting for age, race, heart health and rural-urban status, researchers found incidence highest in the Southeast, running 25 % above the Mid-Atlantic baseline. The Northwest–Rocky Mountain belt followed at +23 %, with the South (+18 %), Southwest including California (+13 %) and even the Northeast (+7 %) also elevated. The ten-region map, based on CDC boundaries, suggests environmental and socio-economic forces—air quality, education, income and access to care—shape cognitive decline as powerfully as individual risk factors. Authors urge region-specific prevention drives, from vascular-health campaigns to pollution controls, rather than a one-size-fits-all national plan. The findings recast dementia as a public-health challenge that begins not in the clinic, but in the postcode.
*This news has been published on Times of India on 10th June 2025

 

 

 

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