📰🧠🔬 ALZHEIMER’S & DEMENTIA STUDY HIGHLIGHTS – Modeling the importance of life exposure factors on memory performance in diverse older adults: A machine learning approach by Fletcher, E., et al.

The study investigates the impact of various life exposure factors on memory performance among diverse older adults using machine learning, highlighting the importance of these factors in cognitive health and dementia risk.

Key Findings:

1. Demographics
• 𝐀𝐠𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐞𝐱 emerged the strongest predictors of memory performance.
• 𝐖𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧 𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐞𝐝 men on memory-related tasks.

2. Socioeconomic Factors
• 𝐄𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 stands out as the most influential factor, especially for women and Hispanic participants.
• 𝐇𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐈𝐧𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 is significantly associated with better memory, with a greater impact observed in women.

3. Lifestyle
• 𝐕𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐫𝐞𝐠𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐫 𝐞𝐱𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐞, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐬𝐥𝐞𝐞𝐩 strongly support memory health.
• 𝐌𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐯𝐢𝐠𝐨𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐞𝐱𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐥𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐝𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 are more beneficial than either excessive or insufficient levels.

4. Health
• 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 moderately impact memory, with hearing being more influential in men and vision in women.
• 𝐒𝐦𝐨𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐚𝐥𝐜𝐨𝐡𝐨𝐥 𝐮𝐬𝐞, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐓𝐁𝐈 are less impactful but still negatively influence memory.

5. Ethnic Variations
• 𝐄𝐭𝐡𝐧𝐢𝐜 𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐲 has modest global importance, with generally positive impacts for Asian and White participants and negative impacts for Black and Hispanic participants.

Conclusions
• Education, income, volunteering, hearing, vision, and sleep were among the most important 𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬 across groups.

📄 Access the full article at: Fletcher, E., Chanti-Ketterl, M., Hokett, E., Lor, Y., Venkatesan, U., Chen, R., Bubu, O. M., Whitmer, R., Gilsanz, P., & Zlatar, Z. Z. (2025). Modeling the importance of life exposure factors on memory performance in diverse older adults: A machine learning approach. Alzheimer’s & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, 21(8), e70428. https://alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/alz.70428. This is an open-access article under a CC-BY 4.0 license.