{"id":307513,"date":"2025-11-25T10:35:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T10:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/307513\/"},"modified":"2025-11-25T10:35:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T10:35:12","slug":"listening-to-music-linked-to-39-percent-lower-dementia-risk-%c2%b7-news-%e2%9f%8b-ra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/307513\/","title":{"rendered":"Listening to music linked to 39 percent lower dementia risk \u00b7 News \u27cb RA"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Listening to music linked to 39 percent lower dementia risk \u00b7 News \u27cb RAA Monash University study found that regular music listening markedly reduced risks of dementia and cognitive decline.<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imgproxy.ra.co\/_\/quality:66\/aHR0cHM6Ly9zdGF0aWMucmEuY28vaW1hZ2VzL25ld3MvMjAyNS9jaHJpcy1ib2xhbmQtaWp0eWFiaGdscjAtdW5zcGxhc2guanBn\" alt=\"Listening to music linked to 39 percent lower dementia risk image\"   class=\"Image-sc-mve7dk-0 cUdKrd\"\/>Listening to music could significantly reduce the risk of dementia in older adults, according to new research led by Melbourne&#8217;s Monash University.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1002\/gps.70163\" data-tracking-id=\"https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1002\/gps.70163\" target=\"https:\/\/ra.co\/\" class=\"Link__AnchorWrapper-sc-1huefnz-1 iVHMrM\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">study<\/a>, published in the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, examined data from more than 10,800 people aged over 70, sourced from the ASPREE and ALSOP longitudinal studies.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers found that older adults who always listened to music had a 39 percent lower risk of developing dementia compared to those who never, rarely or only sometimes listened. They also showed a 17 percent reduced incidence of cognitive impairment and stronger performance in overall cognition and episodic memory.<\/p>\n<p>Playing a musical instrument was linked to a 35 percent decrease in dementia risk, while regularly engaging in both listening and playing corresponded with a 33 percent reduction in dementia and a 22 percent reduction in cognitive impairment.<\/p>\n<p>Led by honours student Emma Jaffa and Professor Joanne Ryan, the study emphasises that while the findings cannot prove causation, they point to music as a potentially accessible lifestyle strategy for supporting cognitive health in ageing populations.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1002\/gps.70163\" data-tracking-id=\"https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1002\/gps.70163\" target=\"https:\/\/ra.co\/\" class=\"Link__AnchorWrapper-sc-1huefnz-1 iVHMrM\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Read<\/a> the study in full.<\/p>\n<p>Photo: Chris Boland<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listening to music linked to 39 percent lower dementia risk \u00b7 News \u27cb RAA Monash University study found&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307514,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[64,63,5224,137,5223],"class_list":["post-307513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-english","tag-health","tag-magazine-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}