Risk factors for dementia in Brazil: Differences by region and race.

Introduction: Twelve risk factors (RFs) account for 40% of dementia cases worldwide. However, most data for population attributable fractions (PAFs) are from high-income countries (HIC). We estimated how much these RFs account for dementia cases in Brazil, stratifying estimates by race and socioeconomic level.
Methods: We calculated the prevalence and communalities of 12 RFs using 9412 Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Aging participants, then stratified according to self-reported race and country macro-regions.
Results: The overall weighted PAF was 48.2%. Less education had the largest PAF (7.7%), followed by hypertension (7.6%), and hearing loss (6.8%). PAF was 49.0% and 54.0% in the richest and poorest regions, respectively. PAFs were similar among White and Black individuals (47.8% and 47.2%, respectively) but the importance of the main RF varied by race.
Discussion: Brazil's potential for dementia prevention is higher than in HIC. Education, hypertension, and hearing loss should be priority targets.
(© 2022 the Alzheimer's Association.)