Job characteristics may be linked to dementia risk
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High-complexity jobs that primarily involve work with people or things are associated with a reduced risk of developing dementia, a Canadian study suggests.
Dr. Edeltraut Kroger and colleagues found the risk of dementia may be 34 percent lower in occupations like teaching that require highly complex interactions with people, as opposed to jobs requiring lower levels of people interaction.
The investigators also observed about a 28 percent reduced risk for dementia among people with jobs that involve high levels of complex interactions with things, such as farming. However, this association was “less reliable, and the result we observed has not been confirmed by other studies,” Kroger told Reuters Health.
Kroger, of the Hopital du Saint-Sacrement, in Quebec, and colleagues observed even greater risk reductions for dementia when jobs with highly complex interactions with people or things were held for more than 23 years.
The investigators used data from the Canadian Study of Health and Aging to evaluate associations between work complexity and the occurrence of dementia in 3,557 men and women, who were an average age of 73 years at the start of the study.
The investigators report in the American Journal of Epidemiology that 400 of the subjects had dementia. The most frequently held occupations included secretaries and stenographers, farmers, elementary and secondary school teachers, registered and graduate nurses and nurses in training, and general office clerks.
Occupations were graded as high or intermediate complexity in relation to things, people or data. As noted, high-complexity work with people and with things were associated with reduced risk for dementia, when the investigators accounted for other factors potentially associated with dementia such as work-related physical activity and leisure exercise, gender, education, hobbies, alcohol consumption, smoking status, and family and medical history.
By contrast, high-complexity work with data may be associated with an increased risk for dementia, specifically when held for more than 23 years. However, this association was more difficult to interpret, Kroger noted, and requires further examination in studies specifically designed to assess the effect of occupational characteristics.
As for the reason for the findings, the investigators write: “Maintenance of cognitive reserve by mental stimulation may be an underlying mechanism explaining the relation of higher complexity of work with people and things to lower risk of dementia found in our study.”
SOURCE: American Journal of Epidemiology, April 2008.
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