Work demands may influence dementia risk

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Highly challenging jobs with opportunities for responsibility may be good for your resume and your health. New study findings suggest that people with these types of jobs may be less likely to be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease or other types of dementia.

“Challenging work with high control possibilities and high social demands might prevent the development of dementia,” study author Dr. Andreas Seidler, of Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany told AMN Health.

Other psychosocial factors have also been linked with an increased risk of dementia among adults, according to the report. Previous researchers have found that adults who live alone, have never married, have no close social ties, or who rarely participate in social and leisure activities have an increased risk of dementia.

Seidler and colleagues looked at the possible influence of work-related factors on dementia risk. They studied the work histories of 195 dementia patients, age 55 to 99 years, who visited 23 general practices between 1998 and 2000. For comparison, the study also included 229 seniors without dementia.

Dementia patients were less likely to have had challenging work experiences or high possibilities for control at their jobs than those in the comparison group, Seidler and colleagues report in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

On the other hand, they were more likely to work in positions in which there was a high risk of making errors, the report indicates.

The reason for this is unknown, but Seidler speculates it may be related to other factors associated with dementia. “Possibly jobs that have a high risk for error, (like) building occupations, farmers, motor vehicle and train drivers, are associated with an increased head trauma risk,” he said. “Head trauma is discussed as a risk factor for dementia.”

Whether the challenge, social demands, or possibility for control in a job can actually prevent the onset of dementia is unknown.

“At present we do not know whether the association between psychosocial factors and dementia is really causal,” Seidler said. “If it was, dementia could be prevented by the improvement of working conditions.”

“As an alternative explanation,” Seidler added, “preclinical symptoms of dementia might influence the career decades before the dementia becomes clinically manifest.”

SOURCE: Occupational and Environmental Medicine, December 2004.

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