American Heart Association President, Mitchell S. V. Elkind, M.D., M.S., FAHA, FAAN, professor of neurology and epidemiology at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and attending neurologist at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York, New York offers perspective via Zoom on EPI Lifestyle 2021 presentation 74.
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"Now, there are some limitations to this study of family history and behaviors and how they relate to dementia. It's a large study, that's a great thing, but it's an observational study still, it's not a clinical trial. So it doesn't necessarily show that engaging in these behaviors will lead to or cause a reduced incidence of dementia. For a study like that, we really need to do a clinical trial in which people are randomized to a certain type of behavior or another. The tricky thing of course is getting people to engage in these behaviors. We know a lot about the benefits of physical activity and other healthy behaviors, but what we haven't quite cracked yet is how to get people to do those things, and that's where I think a lot of the work in the future will be, changing people's behavior to become more healthy and figuring out exactly which behaviors may be the easiest to engage in, the most likely to have a public health impact. So that's where I think a lot of the effort will be channeled in the future."