Research into why people in the regions are three to five times more likely to develop dementia than those in the cities has been "a long time coming", a Ballarat advocate told The Courier.
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Glenda Hipwell, of the Bigger Hearts Dementia Alliance Ballarat, has spent most of her life working in regional and rural communities and said isolation can add to regional risks.
"You see a lot of families who are quite isolated ... and sometimes it comes down to things like the stigma that's attached to dementia as well," she said.
"Some small communities adapt very well to managing somebody within the community who has dementia, watching out for them, that sort of thing. But other communities will [not]."
Dementia Australia estimates there are more than 104,000 people living with all forms of dementia in Victoria in 2023. This figure is projected to increase to almost 230,000 by 2058.
Its the second leading cause of death for Australians and it's a leading cause of death for Australian women.
The research, funded by a $365,000 grant from the Dementia Australia Research Foundation, will be led by University of South Australia researcher Dr Ashleigh Smith.
She said without significant medical advancement, the numbers will only grow.
"There's a number of different risk factors that increase someone's risk ... one of those risk factors is age itself [and] there's a larger proportion of older adults in rural and regional Australia, but we also know that, after the age of about 65, we have pretty good evidence that almost 40 per cent of dementia is due to modifiable factors," Dr Smith said.
"These include things like smoking, diabetes, social isolation, air pollution, and then factors like physical inactivity. We have really good data on how these risk factors cluster together in people in the city, but we don't really know how these modifiable factors cluster in people who live outside of major cities."
The two-year project is one of 18 funded by the foundations grants program which handed out a total $2.4 million in support in 2022.
Dr Smith said it would enable her team to create dementia prevention strategies specifically tailored for rural and regional communities.
Because regional people, Dr Smith said, did not want city-based solutions.
"The first aim of this fellowship is really to establish some new, large cohorts of older adults who aren't living in major cities and then explore how these risk factors might cluster together," she said.
"For example, smoking may be higher in regional and rural Australia, but factors like air pollution, for example, might be lower. So it'll be interesting to explore how these factors actually cluster differently in people who live outside of major cities."
For Ms Hipwell, shes hoping this research will lead to targeted dementia programs in Ballarat.
"Not just around prevention strategies, but around working with people who have dementia within the community, making them feel like or allowing them to feel like they still have a sense of purpose," she said.
- For support, please contact the National Dementia Helpline on 1800 100 500. An interpreter service is available.
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