{
  "abstract": "Background: Dementia is a growing public health challenge driven by ageing. A substantial proportion is linked to modifiable cardiovascular, lifestyle, educational, and social factors. International studies suggest that addressing exposures such as hypertension, smoking, physical inactivity, and low education could prevent a meaningful share of cases, although estimates vary. Effective prevention requires understanding which risk factors are most prevalent, how they cluster, and how they vary by age, sex, education, and region.\n\nMethods: We used Lifelines Cohort data (n≈75,000) across multiple follow-up waves to estimate dementia prevalence attributable to 16 modifiable risk factors. Relative risks were derived from meta-analyses. Population attributable fractions (PAFs) were calculated and adjusted for overlap using communality from tetrachoric correlations, yielding weighted PAFs. Analyses were stratified by age, sex, education, and region.\n\nResults: Overall, 50.5% of dementia cases were attributable to the 16 modifiable risk factors. The highest weighted PAFs were unhealthy diet (9.0%), hearing loss (8.8%), physical inactivity (8.6%), social isolation (8.4%), and hypertension (8.3%). Men showed higher PAFs than women for hypertension (9.9% vs 7.0%), hearing loss (10.7% vs 7.4%), and unhealthy diet (10.8% vs 7.5%). In women, poor sleep quality was about twice as high and low cognitive activity about three times higher than in men. Total weighted PAF was higher in low education (54.2%) than high education (41.9%). Regional variation ranged from 47.4% to 55.2%.\n\nConclusions: These findings align with international estimates (38–56%). Hypertension and physical inactivity remain key drivers, alongside hearing loss, diet, and social isolation. The results support multi-domain prevention strategies targeting cardiovascular, lifestyle, sensory, and social factors, highlighting substantial potential to reduce dementia incidence through integrated population-based prevention.\n\nKey messages: • Not all dementia risk factors are causal; stronger causal evidence (trials, cohorts, MR, quasi-experiments) is needed, considering clustering and subgroup differences for prevention.\n\n• Dementia risk varies by age, sex, education, and region; tailored, context-specific prevention strategies are likely more effective than one-size-fits-all approaches.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": "abstract",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 4,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "AN Wenzler"
    },
    {
      "name": "AC Liefbroer"
    },
    {
      "name": "RC Oude Voshaar"
    },
    {
      "name": "N Smidt"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/94efqarpn5tfn.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.1093/eurpub/ckag169.921",
  "fulltext_url": "https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC13699958/",
  "id": "94efqarpn5tfn",
  "issns": [
    "1101-1262",
    "1464-360X"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckag169.921",
  "language": "en",
  "licence": "CC-BY-NC-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY-NC 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "heading",
      "5. Poster Walks"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "AcademicSubjects/MED00860"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "AcademicSubjects/SOC01210"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "AcademicSubjects/SOC02610"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "S.6. Poster Walk: Epidemiology, genomics and cancer prevention"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "2738|Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research"
    ]
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  "openalex": "W7223649832",
  "pdf_url": "https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13699958/pdf/?tool=EBI",
  "pmcid": "PMC13699958",
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-01",
  "publisher": "Oxford University Press",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/94efqarpn5tfn.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:20:29Z",
      "native_id": "PMC13699958",
      "source": "pmc",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckag169.921"
    },
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:21:34Z",
      "native_id": "PMC:PMC13699958",
      "source": "europepmc",
      "url": "https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13699958"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "medicine",
      "origin": "openalex:2738|Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research",
      "subfield": "psychiatry"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Preventable dementia in the Netherlands; population attributable fraction of modifiable risk factors",
  "title_text": "Preventable dementia in the Netherlands; population attributable fraction of modifiable risk factors",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:36:27Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/94efqarpn5tfn",
  "venue": "The European Journal of Public Health",
  "versions": []
}