16 August 2004 news item
People who spend most of their lives in jobs that involve little brain work appear more likely to eventually develop Alzheimer's disease, according to new study.
To investigate whether job history played a role in the development of Alzheimer's disease, Kathleen Smyth and colleagues from Case Western Reserve University in Ohio reviewed the work history of 122 people with the disorder and 235 people who were free of the disease.
Jobs were classified as having high mental demands if they were complex, involved a variety of activities, required creative rather than routine tasks, and workers had some ability to control, direct or plan activities.
Reporting in the journal Neurology, the researchers found that people without Alzheimer's disease were more likely to have held jobs that required significant brain work, while people with the disease were more likely to have held physically demanding jobs.
Smyth said that while the findings could mean the effects of Alzheimer's start early in life, and may influence people's ability to get or keep mentally demanding jobs, "it also could be that being in mentally demanding jobs for many years helps people to do better mentally when they are older". She added: "On average, people with Alzheimer's disease in our study had jobs with lower mental demands than people without Alzheimer's disease in their 30s, 40s, and 50s - that is, across most of their working lives."
"We're in a fucking stagmire."
--Little Carmine, 'The Sopranos'