USC-led researchers used Britain's 1972 rise in the school-leaving age as a natural experiment: people made to stay in school longer were less likely to be diagnosed with dementia by 65, even at high genetic risk.
The 2026 update to the National Plan to Address Alzheimer's Disease replaces six goals with four, leads with dementia risk reduction, and comes with a new FDA accelerator and up to $48.8 million from ARPA-H.
In 187,341 US adults aged 50 and over, an ADHD diagnosis was tied to a more than fourfold higher risk of mild cognitive impairment or dementia, and genetic risk for ADHD showed a smaller but similar link.
