Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41348480›Full record

ArticleThe Gerontologist2026

"Brain health"-the emergence of a new healthy construct and its role in everyday life.

Joyce Siette, Gilbert Knaggs, Sarabpreet Singh

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in The Gerontologist, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Joyce SietteThe MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University, Westmead, New South Wales, Australia.ORCID 0000-0001-9568-5847
Gilbert KnaggsThe MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University, Westmead, New South Wales, Australia.
Sarabpreet SinghThe MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University, Westmead, New South Wales, Australia.

Funding

National Health and Medical Research Council TCR 2024768
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND

objectivesEmerging public health discourse increasingly frames brain health and dementia prevention as matters of personal responsibility and urge individuals to adopt modifiable behaviors across the life course. This study examines how adults at different life stages perceive dementia risk and engage with brain health practices, with particular attention to how these behaviors are socially structured and culturally mediated. RESEARCH DESIGN AND

methodsUsing a life course perspective and an abductive critical realist approach, this qualitative study draws on semi-structured interviews with 33 participants (aged 19-81 years) recruited across three generational cohorts: younger adults (n = 11), middle-aged adults (n = 8), and older adults (n = 14). Abductive thematic analysis was employed to examine how participants understand brain health, dementia, and responsibility for the management and prevention of these aspects of late-life health.

resultsParticipants articulated diverse and age-contingent understandings of brain health. While younger adults associated prevention with aspirational self-optimization, middle-aged adults emphasized routine, sustainability, and caregiving-informed insight. Older adults, often informed by lived proximity to dementia, described adaptive strategies to preserve brain health amid physical limitations. Across all groups, health practices were framed through an ethos of personal accountability, although often enacted within structurally constrained contexts. DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS: Findings emphasize the need to critically engage with how dementia prevention discourse is differentially internalized across the life course. Public health strategies should balance behavioral interventions with honest acknowledgement of the structural conditions which stratify distributions of brain health risk and opportunities for prevention.

Indexed as

BrainDementiaAdultAgedAged, 80 and overFemaleHealth BehaviorHumansInterviews as TopicMaleMiddle AgedQualitative ResearchYoung AdultBrain healthEquityHealth promotionLifecourseNeoliberalism

Identifiers

PMID41348480
PMCPMC13017504

What Socratic holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.