On-Site PhD conferral Irene S. Heger

Key words: Dementia, lifestyle, prevention, mobile app

"Towards primary prevention of dementia - Raising awareness for dementia risk reduction in the general population"

This thesis focusses on prevention of dementia. In the first part of the thesis, it was investigated whether people who live healthy have less risk of developing dementia. A lifestyle-score was calculated for all participants, the LIBRA index. Those who scored unhealthier also performed worse on cognitive tasks and had more evidence of brain damage based on MRI scans. The focus of the second part of the thesis was the translation of this scientific evidence to the general public. To this end, people (40-75 years old) in the province of Limburg completed a survey, which demonstrated that more than half think that dementia cannot be prevented by living a healthy life. Following this, a 10-month awareness campaign was conducted in the province of Limburg (We Zijn Zelf Het Medicijn) and the MijnBreincoach app was developed. This app gives people insight into their personal room for improvement and supports people to make small steps towards a healthier lifestyle and healthier brains. People who had heard of the campaign or app were more aware of the relationship between lifestyle and dementia risk. Several national and international partners have adopted the format of the campaign and the MijnBreincoach app.

Click here for the full dissertation.

Click here for the live stream.