Abstract: As the absolute number and the proportion of elderly people increase, Alzheimers disease(AD)or senile dementia poses tremendous economic and societal burden to the modern aging society, and has been considered a global public health priority. While there is currently no cure for dementia or AD, epidemiological studies have identified several modifiable factors including cardiovascular risk factors and related disorders and psychosocial factors for the occurrence, development and clinical expression of dementia and AD. Cardiovascular risk factors(e.g., smoking, hypertension, diabetes)can promote the clinical onset of dementia by causing cerebrovascular and neurodegenerative pathologies, whereas psychosocial factors(e.g., educational attainment, rich social network, mentally-stimulating activity)can help maintain late-life cognitive functioning by increasing cognitive reserve. Therefore, in theory, intervention methods targeting these modifiable factors may prevent or postpone the onset of dementia or AD. Recent large-scale intervention studies abroad preliminarily demonstrated that a multidomain intervention program that integrated vascular risk factor monitoring, healthy diet, physical exercise and cognitive training could help maintain cognitive functioning in at-risk elderly people. Our country should attach importance to population intervention studies in order to develop effective intervention programs against AD and dementia that are tailored to ethnic populations in China and thus provide the basis for making proper national strategies against dementia.

Key words: Alzheimers disease, Senile dementia, Epidemiology, Risk factors, Cognitive reserve, Population intervention studies