Australians aged over 70 are being asked to help the George Institute for Global Health and the University of NSW in research to understand how lowering blood pressure might reduce dementia risk.
Dementia is a decline in thinking skills that affects our ability to conduct day-to-day activities. It is a progressive neurodegenerative condition that is not a normal part of ageing.
There is a greater risk of dementia as we age. Many older adults are unaware that the risk of dementia can be reduced by maintaining a healthy lifestyle, eating a healthy diet, and staying physically active. Numerous studies have also shown that high blood pressure increases the risk of cognitive decline and dementia.
Dr Ruth Peters, lead researcher, emphasises how important it is to understand what we can do to reduce our risk of dementia once we reach later life, and how important lowering our blood pressure might be.
“As we get older, our blood pressure tends to rise, and we know that having higher blood pressure is bad for the blood vessels in our brains,” Dr Peters said.
In 2023, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that almost half (45%) of adults aged 75 and over reported having hypertension (high blood pressure). [1] However, this likely represents only a proportion of people with high blood pressure, as many people don’t experience any symptoms.
Previous work by the study team re-analysed data from completed research projects and showed that lowering blood pressure in older adults is likely to prevent or delay the risk of dementia by around 10-13%. [2] This is significant given that dementia is the 2nd leading cause of death in Australia, however no study is yet to specifically test this in older adults.
This important area of study is likely to gain even greater focus as our population continues to age over the coming decades.
The George Institute is taking the first steps to test whether blood pressure lowering reduces the risk of dementia and helps to protect our thinking skills in later life. The first step is to see if it is feasible to run blood pressure-lowering studies and to collect information on thinking skills remotely.
The pilot study (RECALL-Pilot) includes adults aged 70 and over and asks people to measure their blood pressure (a blood pressure machine is provided), take a low-dose blood pressure medication for 60 days and complete online tests on thinking or cognitive skills.
In the future, the research team is keen to run a longer-term study, but first need to test whether it is possible to run a study remotely.
To be eligible to join the study you must be aged 70 and over, with no current diagnosis of dementia.
Additional eligibility criteria also apply; visit http://recall.org.au/ for more details and submit an expression of interest here Expression of Interest (georgeinstitute.org). Or you can email or call us on RECALL@georgeinstitute.org.au and Tel: +61 2 8052 4438
