Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019 Aug 8;16(16):2828.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph16162828.

Association of Environmental Features and the Risk of Alzheimer's Dementia in Older Adults: A Nationwide Longitudinal Case-Control Study

Chih-Ching Liu  1 , Chung-Yi Li  1   2 , Shiann-Far Kung  3   4 , Hsien-Wen Kuo  5 , Nuan-Ching Huang  4 , Yu Sun  6 , Susan C Hu  7   8
Affiliations

Association of Environmental Features and the Risk of Alzheimer's Dementia in Older Adults: A Nationwide Longitudinal Case-Control Study

Chih-Ching Liu et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Little is known about the association between environmental features and the risk of Alzheimer's dementia (AD). This study aims to investigate the association of physical and social environments with the incidence of AD. We identified 12,401 newly diagnosed AD cases aged ≥65 years in 2010, with the same no. of matched controls from National Health Insurance claims in Taiwan. Environmental data were collected from government statistics including three physical environments and three social environments. Multilevel logistic regression was conducted to calculate the odds ratios (OR) of AD in association with environmental features at the township level. Results showed that living in the areas with higher availability of playgrounds and sport venues was associated with a 3% decreased odds of AD (95% CI = 0.96-0.99), while higher density of elderly living alone was associated with a 5% increased odds of AD (95% CI = 1.01-1.11), after controlling for individual and other environmental factors. In further examination by urbanization level, the above relationships were found only in rural areas but not in urban areas. This study provides evidence that specific physical and social environmental features have different impacts on the risk of AD.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s dementia; case-control study; incidence; longitudinal study; physical environments; social environments.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow chart of the enrollment in the case and control groups of Alzheimer’s dementia.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Exposure time for the environmental features in the case and control groups.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Winblad B., Amouyel P., Andrieu S., Ballard C., Brayne C., Brodaty H., Cedazo-Minguez A., Dubois B., Edvardsson D., Feldman H., et al. Defeating Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias: a priority for European science and society. Lancet Neurol. 2016;15:455–532. doi: 10.1016/S1474-4422(16)00062-4. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Solomon A., Mangialasche F., Richard E., Andrieu S., Bennett D.A., Breteler M., Fratiglioni L., Hooshmand B., Khachaturian A.S., Schneider L.S., et al. Advances in the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. J. Intern. Med. 2014;275:229–250. doi: 10.1111/joim.12178. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Cassarino M., Setti A. Environment as ‘brain training’: A review of geographical and physical environmental influences on cognitive ageing. Ageing Res. Rev. 2015;23:167–182. doi: 10.1016/j.arr.2015.06.003. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Wu Y.T., Prina A.M., Brayne C. The association between community environment and cognitive function: a systematic review. Soc. Psychiatry Psychiatr. Epidemiol. 2015;50:351–362. doi: 10.1007/s00127-014-0945-6. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Letellier N., Gutierrez L.A., Carriere I., Gabelle A., Dartigues J.F., Dufouil C., Helmer C., Cadot E., Berr C. Sex-specific association between neighborhood characteristics and dementia: The Three-City cohort. Alzheimers Dement. 2018;14:473–482. doi: 10.1016/j.jalz.2017.09.015. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources