Taxi and ambulance drivers shown to have lower risk of Alzheimer's disease

Can Alzheimer's disease be prevented when navigating city streets or in an emergency situation? Groundbreaking research reveals that occupations that require space have lower Alzheimer's disease-related mortality rates. I did.

study: Alzheimer's disease mortality among taxi and ambulance drivers: a population-based cross-sectional study. Image credit: WR7 / Shutterstock.com

recent BMJ This study analyzes Alzheimer's disease (AD)-related mortality among taxi and ambulance drivers, an occupation that requires frequent spatial and navigational processing.

Hippocampus and AD progression

Deaths from Alzheimer's disease have doubled in the past 30 years and are expected to increase as the population ages. Despite the increasing prevalence and morbidity associated with Alzheimer's disease, effective treatments and prevention strategies remain lacking.

Previous research has shown that London taxi drivers have enhanced functional changes in the hippocampus, an area of ​​the brain responsible for episodic memory and learning. The hippocampus is often one of the first brain regions to be damaged in AD. Therefore, it is worth investigating the risk of Alzheimer's disease in certain occupations that frequently require spatial processing, such as taxi and ambulance drivers.

About research

The current study utilized U.S. population-based mortality data to assess Alzheimer's disease-related mortality among taxi and ambulance drivers. The operational hypothesis was that occupations that require frequent real-time spatial and navigational processing may have a lower burden of AD than other occupations.

Mortality data for deceased adults was obtained from the National Vital Statistics System for the period January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2022. The data included 443 occupational groups. However, the researchers were primarily interested in examining data on ambulance and taxi drivers, occupations that involve extensive and unpredictable daily navigation.

As more specific comparison groups, aircraft pilots, bus drivers, and ship captains were considered. The primary outcome variable was the mortality rate for each occupation with Alzheimer's disease as the underlying cause of death.

Research results

A total of 8,972,221 people died, and all of them provided their occupational information. Ambulance drivers and taxi drivers had the lowest average age of death at 64.2 and 67.8 years, respectively.

These occupations, with the exception of bus drivers, mainly employed men, and bus drivers were associated with a more equal representation of men and women. Aircraft pilots had higher education levels, whereas other navigator occupations often reported less than a high school diploma.

Of all study participants, nearly 4% were found to have Alzheimer's disease as the underlying cause of death. The unadjusted rates of Alzheimer's disease-related deaths were 1.03% and 0.74% for taxi drivers and ambulance drivers, respectively, compared to 3.11%, 4.57%, and 2.79% for bus drivers, pilots, and captains, respectively. Ta. Taxi and ambulance drivers had lower Alzheimer's disease-related deaths than other occupations because the average age at death was similar.

The two occupations with the lowest adjusted AD-related rates were taxi and ambulance drivers, at 1.03% and 0.91%, respectively. The adjusted proportion of deaths due to AD in the general population was 1.69%. Adjusted odds ratios for death from Alzheimer's disease were lowest for ambulance and taxi drivers compared to other occupations.

Sensitivity analyzes were conducted by restricting the sample to those who died at age 60 years or older and had Alzheimer's disease listed as an underlying or contributing cause of death. In these analyses, taxi and ambulance drivers had the lowest proportional mortality rates for AD.

Other transportation-related occupations with less seafaring demands did not show a pattern of lower Alzheimer's disease mortality. Bus driver, captain, and pilot ranked 263rd out of 443 occupations.^rd,twenty three^rdthe fourth is the adjusted Alzheimer's disease mortality rate.

There was no pattern of lower Alzheimer's disease mortality among taxi and ambulance drivers when vascular dementia and unspecified dementia were taken into account. This observation suggests that the hippocampus of taxi and ambulance drivers plays a role in lowering the risk of Alzheimer's disease.

conclusion

The findings provide new insight into the potential relationship between taxi and ambulance driving and Alzheimer's disease-related mortality. Nevertheless, additional research is needed to investigate whether specific occupations that require spatial cognitive tasks influence the risk of Alzheimer's disease, and whether cognitive activity can prevent Alzheimer's disease. be.

Besides the absence of a causal relationship, another important limitation of the current study is sample selection bias. People who are at high risk of developing Alzheimer's disease are less likely to remain in the primary occupation being considered. Current research may also underestimate the number of deaths from Alzheimer's disease listed on death certificates.