Judging by the numerous clever questions, the audience found Gindo Tampubolon’s presentation on dementia at the AIS meeting in September fascinating. Gindo’s talk was titled Shaping the fading mind: how inequality and our senses predict dementia around the world.
Unusually for an AIS talk, it did not specifically relate to Indonesia; much of the research Gindo quoted in his presentation was carried out in the US and Western Europe. Nevertheless, Gindo also touched on his experience sharing his academic research on public health with Indonesian institutions.
Gindo quoted a 2024 Lancet Commission study that found an estimated 57 million people lived with dementia globally in 2019, a number that is projected to increase to 153 million by 2050. He made what I thought was a very important point that dementia not only affected those who suffered from it, but also family members and others who have to care for them.
He cited various studies that found childhood poverty has a strong correlation with dementia in later life. Another risk factor for the onset of dementia was hearing and sight loss; through social isolation, depression and physical inactivity. There is an important public health message here, sensory loss can be mitigated by fitting hearing aids or through cataract operations.
Plenty of food for thought
Gindo Tampubolon teaches global health at Manchester University, and studies dementia. He leads the expert group on lifecourse and healthy ageing at the World Health Organization.