Funding provided for two Dementia Australia research projects

What is dementia?

Dementia is the term used to describe the symptoms of a large group of illnesses which cause a progressive decline in a person’s functioning. It is a broad term used to describe a loss of memory, intellect, rationality, social skills and physical functioning. There are many types of Dementia including Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia, frontotemporal dementia and Lewy body disease. Dementia can happen to anybody, but it is more common after the age of 65.

Dementia affects thinking, behaviour and the ability to perform everyday tasks. Brain function is affected enough to interfere with the person’s normal social or working life.

What many people do not know, is that Dementia is the second leading cause of death of Australians, and in 2023, there are an estimated to be more than 400,000 Australians living with dementia. Without a medical breakthrough, the number of people with dementia is expected to increase to more than 8000,000 by 2058. (Dementia Australia)

In 2023, it is estimated that more than 1.5 million people in Australia are involved in the care of someone living with dementia, so partnering with Dementia Australia for research projects was an opportunity The Co-Group had to be part of.

The donation provided by The Co-Group was key for funding two research projects in Dementia Australia Research Foundation’s 2022 Grants Program.

Project title: MiND your thinking: Examining relationships between patterns of repetitive negative thinking and blood-based biomarkers of Alzheimer’s Disease, neurodegeneration, inflammation and stress.

Purpose: Investigating links between repetitive negative thinking and Alzheimer’s disease

Conducted by: Dr Dang, National Ageing Research Institute

Why is this important?

Targeting our modifiable risk factors for dementia (things we can influence, such as our mental health) can prevent or delay up to 40 per cent of diagnoses. Scientists have proposed that reducing a person’s lifetime prevalence of depression could be a pathway to reducing risk and incidence of dementia. Unfortunately, the best way to do this is still unclear.

One way to reduce a person’s risk of depression may be to target repetitive negative thinking, which is the continuous rumination on the past, present and future. While experiencing worry and occasional negative thoughts are a normal part of life, frequent repetitive negative thinking can be harmful.

Research has uncovered relationships between repetitive negative thinking and greater rates of depression and/or anxiety, chronic stress responses, systemic inflammation and neuroinflammation. All of these conditions have independently been associated with an increased risk of dementia.

While previous studies have identified the independent links between dementia and anxiety/depression, inflammation, chronic stress and neuroinflammation, Dr Dang will, for the first time, investigate these risk factors altogether in one group of people. Importantly, she will assess if the content of their thoughts plays a role. This may help determine whether targeting thought frequency or content is most effective at reducing Alzheimer’s disease risk and improving quality of life. Dr Dang is also hoping to determine if any blood biomarkers can help predict if someone will be diagnosed with a neurodegenerative disease in the future. 

Project title: The Australian Road Safety Study for Older Adults: The ROADSAFE Study Identifying neuropsychological correlates of fitness to drive in older adults.

Purpose: Digital screening tool to assess cognitive fitness to drive

Conducted by: Dr Stefanidis, University of the Sunshine Coast

Why is it important?

Fitness to drive assessments can be confronting for older adults. They are faced with the possibility of losing their licence and independence, which is crucial for maintaining a good quality of life. However, with Australia’s ageing population, there is an urgent need for reliable measures that screen for a person’s fitness to drive. GPs are responsible for determining their patients’ driving capacity. Unfortunately, there are no gold-standard assessment measures or procedures to help them detect when their older patients are no longer cognitively safe to be behind the wheel. When a person’s fitness to drive is questioned, a time-consuming and costly on-road driving assessment conducted by an occupational therapist or driving assessor may be required.

In this unique project, Dr Stefanidis and her team will use measures of cognition associated with performing complex tasks to identify people who may no longer be cognitively capable of driving. She will assess participants’ executive functions of decision making and planning, attentional control, reaction time, spatial orientation and working memory, to determine the combination of cognitive measures that best-predict driving capacity.

The findings from the research program will have critical implications for road safety, such that they will inform the development of a bedside screening tool that can be used to assess whether or not a formal driving assessment is required, which will reduce the potential of unnecessary driving assessments in older adults who are cognitively fit to drive.