Taxi and ambulance drivers die less from Alzheimer’s

Taxi and ambulance drivers, whose work requires frequent spatial and navigational processing, have lower mortality rates from Alzheimer’s disease compared to other professions. This was revealed by a study led by Anupam B Jena, of Harvard Medical School, Boston, published in The BMJ.

The findings are observational, so they cannot confirm a direct link, but the researchers say they raise the possibility that professions that require a lot of driving memory, such as taxi or ambulance driving, may be associated with some protection against the disease of Alzheimer’s. THE ‘hippocampus it is a region of the brain responsible for spatial memory and orientation and has been shown to be more developed in London taxi drivers than in the general population. it is also one of the brain regions implicated in the development of Alzheimer’s, which raises the possibility that occupations requiring frequent spatial processing may be associated with reduced mortality from Alzheimer’s disease.

To investigate this, the team of US researchers analyzed the death certificates of adults with 443 different occupations between January 1, 2020 and December 31, 2022. The data included the cause of death, usual occupation, in which the deceased spent most of their life working, and sociodemographic information, such as age, gender, race, ethnic group, and education level.

According to the data, of almost 9 million people died with employment information, 3.9%, or 348,328 people, had Alzheimer’s disease listed as the cause of death. Of 16,658 taxi drivers, 171, or 1.03%, died of Alzheimer’s disease, while among ambulance drivers, the rate was 0.74%. After adjusting for age at death and other sociodemographic factors, taxi and ambulance drivers had the lowest rate of Alzheimer’s disease deaths among all professions examined, 1.03 respectively. % and 0.91%, and compared to the general population 1.69%. The researchers noted that this trend was not found in other transportation-related jobs, such as bus drivers or airline pilots, possibly due to their reliance on pre-established routes, or with other forms of dementia, suggesting that neurological changes in the hippocampus or elsewhere among taxi and ambulance drivers could explain the reduced risk of Alzheimer’s.

This is an observational study, so it is not possible to draw definitive conclusions about cause and effect. The authors acknowledge various limitations, including that individuals who are at higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease may be less likely to engage in or remain in memory-intensive driving occupations such as taxi and ambulance driving. However, they say this is unlikely given that Alzheimer’s disease symptoms typically develop after working age. “We view these results not as conclusive, but as hypothesis generating,” the authors said. “Further research is needed to definitively conclude whether the spatial cognitive work required for these occupations influences the risk of death from Alzheimer’s disease and whether some cognitive activities may be potentially preventative,” the researchers concluded.