‘Time Used Differently Across Society Can Undermine How One Manages Dementia Risk’

How time is used differently by sections of a society and therefore gets unequally distributed can significantly undermine one's ability to manage their risk of dementia, researchers argue and call for policies that allow an individual to engage in brain-healthy behaviours.

- Press Trust Of India

Essential aspects of daily lifestyle take up 10 hours -- at least seven hours of sleep, up to an hour of physical and social activity each, half an hour per meal -- at the bare minimum, but is not an ideal amount for maintaining and promoting brain health, said the team from the University of New South Wales Sydney in Australia and Ireland's Trinity College Dublin, which reviewed evidence from previously published studies.

Results suggest more than 10 hours a day might be required for engaging in brain-health activities, excluding the time needed for work, commute, personal care and caregiving, and household routines, the authors said in the article, published in The Lancet Healthy Longevity journal.

Structural conditions, including irregular work hours, digital overload and socioeconomic disadvantage, can create ‘temporal inequity’ or ‘time poverty’ that disproportionately affects already vulnerable groups, they added.