A person’s mental health and outlook on aging can affect his or her risk for dementia, studies show. Dementia, seen mostly in the elderly, is a mental deterioration that hinders them from performing even the simplest daily activities.

1. Mental Health Disorders and
Ageism Linked to Dementia
Senior Helpers

2. A person’s mental health and outlook on aging can affect his or her risk for dementia, studies show.
Dementia, seen mostly in the elderly, is a mental deterioration that hinders them from performing
even the simplest daily activities.
One study revealed that anxiety and mental health could affect one’s risk for late-onset dementia.
Another study led by the Yale School of Public Health showed that people with negative beliefs on
aging were more likely to show signs of dementia. In both cases, researchers attributed stress to the
development of dementia.
Mental Health and Dementia
Researchers from the University of Southampton’s Faculty of Medicine have found a link between
mental health disorders and late-onset dementia affecting senior citizens. The group went through
3,500 works and found four studies that examine this link; these four studies had an accumulated
sample size of 30,000 individuals.
Published in BMJ Open, the results showed that mental health conditions such as depression and
anxiety increased the risk of dementia. People often show and report signs of these conditions before
they receive a diagnosis of dementia.
These conditions showed its symptoms and were reported way before symptoms of dementia
appeared later in life. The researchers believe that this link can be explained by the excessive stress
response that affected their mental abilities as they aged.

3. Ageism and Dementia
In a separate study published in PLOS ONE, another group of researchers linked stress to dementia. In
this study, Becca Levy from the Yale School of Public Health and her colleagues found that people
who had negative feelings about aging or being a senior were more likely to develop dementia.
Ageism is a form of prejudice against a group of people based on their age group. Many portray the
elderly negatively as sad, senile, and unattractive individuals heavily dependent on others.
During the experiment, researchers observed 4,765 people aged at least 60 years old for four years.
Twenty-six percent of the sample carried the ApoE E4 gene, which is the gene believed to be
responsible for genetic risks such as Alzheimer’s and dementia.
Every two years, the participants completed questionnaires that assessed their cognitive skills and
measured their attitude toward aging. The researchers found that, among those who carried the
gene, nearly 50 percent of them were less likely to develop dementia if they had a positive belief
about age.
The researchers believe this is due to the added stress of aging; people with negative age beliefs are
more likely to experience stress as they age. On the other hand, those with positive age beliefs are
less stressed and less likely to suffer a mental disorder regarding the subject.
The mental health of a person becomes an important factor to keep track of, as he or she gets older
because of its effect later in life. When a person nearing old age has experienced anxiety and
negative emotions, their risk for dementia — as well as the symptoms and consequences of it — may
be higher than usual, and they will require additional care as a result.

4. Sources:
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/321688.php
https://www.seniorhelpers.com/charleston-sc
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0191004
http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/8/4/e019399