Cross-sectional associations between neighborhood characteristics, cognition and dementia risk factor burden in middle-aged and older Australians.

Dementia disproportionately affects individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds, including those living in areas of lower neighborhood-level socioeconomic status. It is important to understand whether there are specific neighborhood characteristics associated with dementia risk factors and cognition which may inform dementia risk reduction interventions. We sought to examine whether greenspace, walkability, and crime associated with the cumulative burden of modifiable dementia risk factors and cognition. This was a cross-sectional analysis of 2016-2020 data from the Healthy Brain Project, a population-based cohort of community-dwelling individuals across Australia. Participants were aged 40-70 and free of dementia. Measures included greenspace (greenspace % in the local area, and distance to greenspace, n = 2,181); and intersection density (n = 1,159), and crime (rate of recorded offences; n = 1,159). Outcomes included a modified Cardiovascular Risk Factors, Aging, and Incidence of Dementia (CAIDE) dementia risk score to index the burden of modifiable vascular dementia risk factors; and composite scores of both memory and attention, derived from the Cogstate Brief Battery. Linear regressions adjusted for age, sex, education, and personal socio-economic status, demonstrated distance to greenspace (

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Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Dr Cavuoto and Dr Pase are supported by a Dementia Australia Research Foundation award (Lucas' Papaw Remedies Project Grant). Dr Pase reported receiving grants from the Alzheimer’s Association, the Bethlehem Griffiths Research Foundation, the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), and the National Heart Foundation of Australia during the conduct of the study and grants from the Alzheimer's Disease Drug Discovery Foundation, the Brain Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the NHMRC, and the Stroke Foundation outside the submitted work. Dr Lim reported receiving grants from the NHMRC outside the submitted work. Dr Maruff is a full-time employee of Cogstate Ltd, the company that provided the Cogstate Brief Battery. No other disclosures were reported.