Job type may influence risk of Alzheimer's.

People who work in jobs that are mentally challenging may be at lower risk for developing Alzheimer's disease than people whose jobs impose physical demands, according to a study published in the August i0 issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

The study authors interviewed 122 people with Alzheimer's and 235 people without the disease and gathered information about their occupations between the ages of 20 and 60. The researchers asked study participants about the complexity of the jobs they had held, the variety of tasks required, the need for creative thinking, and other indicators of mental and physical demands.

The authors found that the types of jobs people held during their twenties did not seem to correlate with the development of Alzheimer's but a link did appear when people reached their thirties. Those whose jobs were more mentally challenging during their thirties were less likely to develop Alzheimer's later in life than those whose jobs were more physically demanding, and this difference persisted as people reached their forties and fifties.

The study did not control for socioeconomic status, leaving open the possibility that people who hold mentally challenging occupations earn more money and thus have access to better health care. People who hold such jobs also may have educational backgrounds and skills that enable them to perform better on tests used to diagnose Alzheimer's, meaning the disease may not be detected in these individuals until it has progressed to an advanced stage.