A campaign aimed at reducing people’s risk of developing dementia has been launched by the Welsh Government and Public Health Wales.
The Dementia Risk Reduction Campaign aims to encourage people to live healthier lifestyles and reduce the risk of developing dementia later in life by up to 60%.
The campaign is based on the work of Professor Peter Elwood at Cardiff University who undertook a 35-year study of 2,235 men from Caerphilly, Machen, Trethomas, Senghenydd and Abertridwr.
The groundbreaking Caerphilly Cohort Study found a 60% reduction in dementia among those who followed healthy behaviours.
More than 42,000 people are currently being treated for dementia in Wales and the campaign is urging people to take six steps to change their current lifestyle – described with the acronym ACT NOW.
Active (physically and socially).
Check your health regularly.
Try new things.
No to smoking.
Only drink alcohol within guidelines, if at all.
Watch your weight.
If current trends continue, according to the Alzheimer’s Society, and no action is taken, the number of people with dementia in the UK is forecast to increase to 1.1 million by 2025 and 2 million by 2051. There are currently 850,000 people suffering with dementia. Prof Elwood’s Caerphilly Cohort Study looked at the lifestyle habits of middle-aged men from 1979 to 2014.
The research has since been extrapolated for use across the UK.
But despite the evidence of the benefits of a healthy lifestyle, health in Wales has not improved.
Revealing his finding in 2014, Prof Elwood challenged the public to act.
He said at the time: “My belief is that people see they have got to do more exercise, eat healthily, not smoke, and drink within limits, but they are not motivated.
“From the results in Caerphilly we can make a very strong challenge that if every person was urged to take up one extra healthy behaviour – a small change to their lifestyle – and if only half did so, we’d see 12% less diabetes, 6% fewer heart attacks and strokes and 13% less people with dementia. There would be savings in the NHS of millions.
“The real gold dust is we can say for dementia that the men who chose a healthy lifestyle saw 60% fewer cases and those who did suffer, had it delayed by six to seven years.”