A recent study has uncovered a surprising link between certain professions and a reduced risk of Alzheimer's disease. Researchers analysing death data from the US National Vital Statistics System found that taxi and ambulance drivers had the lowest proportion of deaths due to Alzheimer's disease compared to all other occupations.
The study, published in the British Medical Journal, examined death data from nearly nine million adults across 443 different occupations. Among taxi drivers, only 1% (171 out of 16,658) died from Alzheimer's disease, while 0.74% (10 out of 1,348) of ambulance drivers succumbed to the disease. In contrast, approximately 4% of the general population had Alzheimer's disease listed as a cause of death.
The researchers suggest that the frequent spatial and navigational processing required in these professions may have a protective effect against Alzheimer's disease. This theory is supported by a previous study showing that London taxi drivers had an enhanced hippocampus, a brain region critical for spatial memory and navigation, compared to the general population.
"In an analysis of nearly all death certificates in the United States, taxi drivers and ambulance drivers, whose jobs require frequent spatial and navigational processing, were found to be the occupations with the two lowest risk-adjusted percentages of deaths due to Alzheimer's disease," the authors wrote.
While the study's findings are intriguing, the researchers caution that no cause-and-effect conclusions can be drawn due to the observational nature of the study. Further research is necessary to determine whether the cognitive demands of these professions can potentially prevent or reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease.
