2021 Alzheimer's Association Research Fellowship (AARF)

Does Fear of Dementia Influence Modifiable Risk Factors for Dementia?

Could excessive fear of dementia in mid-life impact the risk for developing dementia?

Francesca Farina, Ph.D.
Trinity College Dublin
Dublin, Ireland

Background

Fear could be a major driver of societal stigmas surrounding all dementia including Alzheimer’s. Studies show that dementia could be the most feared disease associated with aging. Research shows that experiencing prolonged fear about dementia may impact self-rated cognition and quality of life. However, the impact of fear on healthy cognitive and lifestyle behaviors such as social engagement, which protect against dementia, is unknown.

In previous studies, Dr. Francesca Farina and colleagues have validated and tested a scale to measure the fear of dementia (called the Fear of Memory Loss scale) in collaboration with the Alzheimer’s Society of Ireland. The researchers have also tested an intervention to reduce fear of dementia and improve well-being in older adults in collaboration with Northwestern University in the United States and the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.
 

Research Plan

Building on preliminary results, Dr. Farina’s team will leverage datasets from the long-term Prevent Dementia study. This Prevent Dementia study has collected cognitive, health, lifestyle, and biomarker data, including newly collected fear data from 700 middle-aged adults from Ireland and the United Kingdom.

Using advanced statistical techniques, Dr. Farina and colleagues will analyze the data to study whether fear of dementia may impact psychological (such as depression), physiological (stress) and behavioral factors (social withdrawal). The researchers will then study whether this impact may be associated with the risk of developing dementia in mid-life. Finally, Dr. Farina’s team will investigate how these potential links may be associated with gender, age, socioeconomic status, race and ethnicity among others.
 

Impact

The study results may provide important insights into whether fear of dementia may affect the risk of developing dementia and may aid in the development of strategies to modify these risk factors. In addition, the findings could potentially be used to develop interventions such as education and information access to reduce the fear of dementia, and its associated stigma, in the general public.