A public health perspective in promoting lifestyle behaviors to maintain and improve cognitive health

Recent advances documenting the protective and health improvement influences of lifestyle behaviors on cognitive status among older adults has contributed to increased public interest in healthy lifestyles to promote cognitive health. However, individual lifestyle behaviors such as physical activity, nutrition, social and cognitive engagement differ considerably in terms of empirical support for improving cognitive performance. This presentation examines advances in the empirical support for the association between specific behaviors and cognitive health among older adults. Using a broad ecological public health perspective, findings on the role of lifestyle factors on cognitive functioning are organized by primary, secondary and tertiary levels of prevention as well as the combined and individual effects of health behaviors on cognitive performance. The status of translation and dissemination of programs based on this research are also provided. Recommendations for a research agenda that include population based interventions in community settings with diverse populations are discussed. Finally, models for translating the research into large scale implementation and policy are offered.