A whole-population approach is required for dementia risk reduction

There are estimated to be more than 55 million cases of dementia globally, an increasing majority of which are in low-income and middle-income countries.1 Dementia is characterised by progressive cognitive impairment, affecting a person's daily life beyond what would normally be expected from biological ageing. Dementia is therefore intrinsically linked to the sociocultural and temporal context of what ageing means to a population. In addition to devastation at the individual level, at a population level dementia is a leading cause of morbidity, health and social care costs, and mortality.