Question: Does someones background and culture effect how quickly their dementia progresses? Also does it effect the severity of the illness?

Nadine Mirza answered on 29 Mar 2022:

This is a really great and insightful question!

Background and culture can effect whether someone develops dementia.

Firstly, people of different ethnicities are sometimes more likely to develop dementia- South Asians are one example. Dementia can be passed down in the genes but also some groups of people are more likely to suffer from other conditions, like heart disease or obesity, which can be linked to and even cause dementia. South Asians for example, have high rates of blood pressure and heart problems, which could cause their dementia.

Secondly, how we behave in a culture can effect the possibility of dementia in different ways. Speaking more than one language reduces risk of dementia and in lots of cultures it’s common to speak three or four languages.

At the same time, some cultures believe in reducing the work load of people once they become older. While they do this out of respect and to give their elders peace and comfort, it can leave older people with no thoughtful activity in their day-to-day. This increases risk of dementia and can even speed it up once they get it because the mind isn’t staying active.

However, culture and background, while increasing risk of getting dementia, usually doesn’t effect how severe it’s going to be. What happens though is that people from non-White and non-English speaking backgrounds usually don’t receive help as soon as they should so their symptoms and problems don’t get managed. And that makes them experience the most severe symptoms that could have been managed but aren’t.