Policy roadmap to reduce dementia risk
A national panel of experts, led by Wolfson Institute of Population Health researchers, has produced evidence-based recommendations for the development of new government policy to reduce risk of dementia.
The Nottingham Consensus sets out 56 recommendations to turn decades of research into tangible policy, and calls for the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to overhaul how it approaches dementia prevention. The expert panel, convened by researchers at the NIHR Policy Research Unit in Dementia and Neurodegeneration at Queen Mary University of London (DeNPRU-QM), has produced recommendations spanning four policy areas:
- Reforming public messaging to improve awareness of brain health and dementia risk
- Identifying and treating individual dementia risk factors, such as hearing loss and high blood pressure
- Addressing the important structural factors influencing brain health that are outside an individual’s control (such as socioeconomic deprivation and air pollution)
- Targeting research funding to address the gaps in our understanding of how best to reduce dementia risk.
Dementia cases are expected to triple by 2050, but public awareness that the risk of dementia can be reduced remains strikingly low. The panel of 40 experts identified three high-priority areas for individual action where evidence is particularly strong: hearing loss, social isolation, and high blood pressure. They also warned that, without structural support, such as affordable hearing services, accessible social infrastructure and effective blood pressure management, these interventions will fail to reach the people who need them most.
The paper describing the recommendations, released simultaneously with a DHSC policy brief, provides government policymakers with robust tools to implement an evidence-based dementia prevention strategy, in line with the 10 Year Health Plan for England, but also with broad international applicability. The Nottingham Consensus calls for a joined-up approach that builds dementia prevention into wider government action on issues such as smoking, alcohol, pollution and social inequality. Putting the recommendations into practice would send a clear signal that, with the right structural support, dementia risk can be reduced.
Lead author Harriet Demnitz-King said: “We know dementia risk can be reduced, but the evidence has not yet been transformed into coherent governmental strategy. People need clear, evidence-based guidance on protecting their brain health, but the information they receive can be confusing or make them feel blamed. What we need now is coordinated, structural action to develop dementia prevention policies that are equitable, realistic and grounded in the lives people actually lead.”
Senior author Charles Marshall said: “Dementia is now the leading cause of death in the UK, so we desperately need a clear public health plan to improve this situation. We hope that this consensus will lead to better public messaging about dementia, improved recognition and management of other conditions that increase dementia risk, a strategy on structural approaches to improving brain health, and research that addresses gaps in our knowledge about how best to do all this. Implementing our recommendations will ensure that as many people as possible live to old age without dementia.”
The research was funded through the NIHR Policy Research Unit in Dementia and Neurodegeneration, Queen Mary University of London.
The Nottingham consensus on dementia risk reduction policy: recommendations from a modified-Delphi process in England. Harriet Demnitz-King, Sube Banerjee, Claudia Cooper, Charlotte Kenten, Rosemary Phillips, Sedigheh Zabihi, Yvonne Birks, Carol Brayne, Sallyann Browning, Camille Carroll, Georgina Charlesworth, Carol Coupland, Tom Dening, Ruth Dobson, Isabelle Foote, Sarah Foster, Chris Fox, Robert Howard, Jeremy Isaacs, Uzma Jaffry, Ivan Koychev, Gill Livingston, David Llewellyn, Richard Oakley, Magdalena Opazo Bretón, Martin Orrell, Alastair J Noyce, Tommy Pouncey, Greta Rait, Janice Ranson, Mohammed Rauf, Vanessa Raymont, Elizabeth L Sampson, Jonathan M Schott, Debs Smith, Xin You Tai, Alison Thomson, Sebastian Walsh, Dylan M Williams, Naaheed Mukadam, Charles R Marshall on behalf of DeNPRU-QM. Nature Reviews Neurology. 16 January 2026. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41582-025-01173-9