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Mentally stimulating work plays key role in staving off dementia, study finds

People in routine and repetitive jobs found to have 31% greater risk of disease in later life, and 66% higher risk of mild cognitive problems

Edwin and her colleagues examined the cognitive complexity of various jobs based on the amount of routine manual and mental work, and the degree of analytical and interpersonal tasks, they involved. But education also appears to build “cognitive reserve” – the capacity to improvise and find alternative ways of doing things – which may help stave off mental decline, much as physical exercise delays frailty. Prof Gill Livingston, professor of the psychiatry of older people at University College London, said the findings were in line with other studies on the impact of work.

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