{"id":901789,"date":"2026-09-22T22:34:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T22:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/901789\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T22:34:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T22:34:09","slug":"most-older-us-adults-would-be-interested-in-a-dementia-vaccine-survey-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/901789\/","title":{"rendered":"Most older US adults would be interested in a dementia vaccine, survey finds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nearly three in four older adults surveyed said they’d be interested in getting a hypothetical vaccine that significantly cuts their chances of developing dementia, according to the results of a survey<\/a> published yesterday in JAMA Network Open.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dementia, characterized by progressive decline in cognitive function, is not infectious. Scientists have found no dementia-causing pathogen that spreads person to person.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, as the study notes, there’s ongoing research into immunotherapies and even vaccine-based approaches to delay or reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, the leading cause<\/a> of dementia. Also, some vaccines<\/a>, including the shingles<\/a> vaccine, are associated with lower rates of dementia: One of the theories<\/a> is that illness caused by infectious disease can result in long-term health complications that increase the risk of developing the condition.<\/p>\n

To glean how willing people might be to get a dementia-preventing shot, researchers surveyed 1,529 US residents aged 50 or older. People were told to assume a hypothetical vaccine could reduce the risk of dementia by half for those who were at high risk of developing the condition.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We designed the scenario to give respondents a concrete and understandable way to think about a potential future vaccine, while also grounding it in emerging research,” lead author J. Felipe Montano-Campos, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles’s Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics, told CIDRAP News.<\/p>\n

Most responded that they were very open to getting such a vaccine: 34% selected “definitely yes,” 21% said “very likely,” and 17% chose “likely,” for a 72% favorable response rate.<\/p>\n

There was some demographic variation in the survey results. Men were more likely than women to say they were interested in a vaccine, and Black respondents were more hesitant than white or Hispanic respondents.<\/p>\n

Also, the older the respondents were, the more likely they were to want a dementia-preventing vaccine. This arguably makes sense, as the rate of dementia increases with age, with 13.1% of people 85 or older having the diagnosis, according to a 2024 report<\/a> by the National Center for Health Statistics based on data from 2022.<\/p>\n

Though results are promising, surveys don’t show proof<\/p>\n

Interestingly, 21% of survey respondents said they weren’t sure they would get the vaccine, while a mere 7% said they were either “unlikely,” “very unlikely,” or “definitely no.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

These responses suggest that “uncertainty rather than opposition may be the principal barrier to adoption,” the authors said.<\/p>\n

While it’s encouraging that most survey participants rated themselves at least somewhat likely to get a yet-to-be-created dementia vaccine, responses to a survey can be “cheap talk,” cautioned Gretchen Chapman, PhD, a psychologist who studies decision-making within the context of vaccines at Carnegie Mellon University.<\/p>\n

“We don’t know how many would actually get such a vaccine,” said Chapman, who wasn’t involved in the study.<\/p>\n

The authors acknowledge that the survey asks hypothetical questions that may not fully capture clinical decision-making. They argue, however, that the findings suggest a need for targeted communication and engagement to ensure equitable vaccine uptake.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nearly three in four older adults surveyed said they’d be interested in getting a hypothetical vaccine that significantly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":901790,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[64,63,137],"class_list":["post-901789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901789","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=901789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/901790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=901789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=901789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=901789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}