Daylight and dementia: don’t stop going outside

Context Dementia is a syndrome characterised by progressive changes in cognitive function that are evident in more than one cognitive domain and which interfere with daytoday life. Dementia can be caused by a number of different conditions but Alzheimer’s disease remains the most commonly diagnosed cause. Despite decades of drug development, there are no effective licensed diseasemodifying treatments for Alzheimer’s disease. As a result, there has been focus for some time on potentially modifiable risk factors. The Lancet commission identified established risk factors as: less education, hypertension, hearing impairment, smoking, obesity, depression, physical inactivity, diabetes, infrequent social contact, excessive alcohol consumption, head injury and air pollution. This study postulates sunlight exposure as an additional risk factor.