Girls with low IQS have higher risk of dementia

Preadolescent girls with low IQS are more likely to develop dementia, Scottish scientists have found.

Research by the University of Edinburgh studied 35,000 Scots and did not find any link between intelligence and dementia risk with males.

The link between childhood IQ and risk of dementia in women was “clearly evident”.

Factors such as social class or quality of preschool education was thought to play a role.

“Early life cognitive ability has been linked to subsequent dementia risk but studies to date have been small and none has examined sex differences”, Dr Tom Russ of Alzheimer Scotland Dementia Research Centre, said.

“Our main findings are that an association between lower childhood IQ and increased dementia risk was clearly evident in women, but less so in men.

“This research helps us move towards an understanding of dementia as not being a disease of old age – it is a disease of the whole lifespan.”