Where you live could determine how quickly your brain deteriorates as you age.
A new study published in JAMA Neurology by researchers at UC San Francisco found that dementia risk varies dramatically by region in the U.S., even when you account for the usual suspects like income or education.
Using data pulled from the Veterans Health Administration, researchers analyzed over 1.2 million veterans aged 65 and up. These weren’t folks already diagnosed with dementia; they were tracked for an average of 12 years to see who developed it.
They found that dementia rates were way higher in some parts of the U.S. than in others. The findings were at their most pronounced in the Southeast, where rates were 25 percent higher than in the Mid-Atlantic (a region including Pennsylvania and Maryland, which had the lowest rates).
The Northwest and Rocky Mountains also showed 23 percent higher rates, while the South and Southwest hovered around 18 percent and 13 percent higher, respectively. The Northeast wasn’t spared, with a 7 percent bump.
Your ZIP Code Might Have Some Say In Whether Or Not You Get Dementia
The researchers working on the study were bowled over by how much data they were able to get their hands on thanks to the VA. This makes this study’s findings fairly comprehensive while offering a rare glimpse into how geography, environment, and policy can impact brain health.
The researchers tried adjusting for a ton of variables, like rural vs. urban areas, cardiovascular health, and education levels. No matter what they did, the trends remained the same. This means that there are deeper, less tangible forces at play here. Maybe even cultural forces influencing why brain deterioration is happening more quickly in Mississippi and Alabama than it is in, say, Vermont and Pennsylvania.
Lead researcher Dr. Kristine Yaffe suggests these disparities could be driven by long-term differences in education quality and a wide variety of social and political aspects that determine health outcomes, which is a polite way of saying that our patchwork of a healthcare system creates deep, glaring inconsistencies.
If you’re in the southeast and worried that simply being where you are might one day lead to dementia, just move to Connecticut or Maryland or something. You’ll be fine.
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