Keywords: Dementia, prevention, lifestyle, risk factors 
 

"Targeting Modifiable Risk and Protective Factors To Prevent Dementia: From Observation to Application"

This thesis investigated the association between a healthy lifestyle and the risk of dementia. Additionally, avenues to translate this scientific knowledge into practice were explored. This thesis demonstrated that the association between a “brain”-healthy lifestyle and dementia risk is not only apparent in the often-researched Western countries, but rather that the association is apparent globally. This thesis also provided evidence that individuals who improve in terms of their lifestyle over time, on average tend to have a lower risk for dementia compared to individuals who worsen in terms of their lifestyle, when both groups started off with the same lifestyle. Further, a public health campaign on dementia risk reduction was evaluated and the feasibility of integrating ‘brain health’ as topic within the general practice was investigated. Integration of brain health within primary care indeed appeared to be feasible and thus may be a good first step towards dementia risk reduction in the Netherlands.

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