Preventable risk factors of dementia: Population attributable fractions in a Brazilian population-based study

Background Knowledge regarding the modifiable risk factors of dementia is fundamental to guide public health policy. We aimed to estimate the population attributable fraction of modifiable risk factors of dementia among adults from a nationwide epidemiological study. Methods We used the public database of the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Aging (ELSI-Brazil) to calculate the Population Attributable Fraction (PAF) for ten risk factors, including education level, hearing loss, hypertension, alcohol consumption, obesity, active smoking, depression, social isolation, physical inactivity, and diabetes. PAF was estimated for this sample after accounting for the communality of each risk factor. Findings The ten preventable risk factors for dementia accounted for 50 center dot 5% of the Population Attributable Fraction in Brazil. Hearing loss (14 center dot 2%), physical inactivity (11 center dot 2%), and hypertension (10 center dot 4%) accounted for the highest PAF among all the risk factors. Considerable variation in the relative contribution of the different risk factors was found in different regions. Interpretation This study might provide an opportunity to change the impact of dementia in Brazil. By targeting modifiable risk factors of dementia, the health of individuals in Brazil might be considerably improved. Copyright (c) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)