The more people use their brains at work, the better they seem to be protected against dementia and older-age thinking and memory problems, intriguing new research has suggested.
The study by Norwegian academics, published in the journal Neurology, analysed more than 7,000 Norwegians in 305 occupations.
Those who had the least mentally-demanding jobs had a 66% greater risk of mild cognitive impairment, and a 31% greater risk of dementia after the age of 70 compared with those in the most mentally taxing roles, it found.
Dementia
Pioneering blood test trials for dementia set to get underway
Vitamin D deficiency among risk factors for young-onset dementia
Dr Trine Edwin, a geriatrician and postdoctoral fellow at Oslo university hospital, told The Guardian newspaper: “It really shows how important work is. It’s important to go to work and use your brain, and to use your brain to learn new things.”
Among the jobs ranked as most stimulating were teachers and university lecturers. Some of the least cognitively demanding jobs were those that involved repetitive manual tasks, such as road work, cleaning and delivering the post.
The results suggest that people who spend their working lives in less mentally stimulating jobs might benefit from further education or pursuing more cognitively challenging pastimes outside work, Dr Trine argued.
“It’s not that you are doomed or you are not – we can empower people for their later cognitive health with education and tasks that are cognitively stimulating,” she said.
Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance
Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday
Higher levels of education accounted for about 60% of the protective effect seen among people who did mentally stimulating jobs.
“It means that education is very important, but it’s also what you do afterwards: it’s how you use your brain when you are working. You are building your cognitive reserve at work by being cognitively active,” Dr Trine added.
