A new study raises the possibility that jobs that require frequent spatial processing – such as figuring out a taxi route or the best way to navigate to a hospital – could lead to lower death rates from Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers at Mass General Brigham explored this possibility by using national data on the occupations of people who had died to assess the risk of death from Alzheimer’s disease in 443 occupations. They found that taxi driving and ambulance driving were associated with a lower death rate from Alzheimer’s disease compared to other occupations. Results are published in BMJ.
The same part of the brain involved in creating cognitive spatial maps – which we use to navigate the world around us – is also involved in the development of Alzheimer’s disease. We hypothesized that occupations such as taxi driver and ambulance driver, which require real-time spatial and navigational processing, may be associated with reduced mortality from Alzheimer’s disease compared to other occupations.”
Vishal Patel, MD, MPH, lead author, resident physician, Department of Surgery, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Patel and colleagues from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital, the founders of the Mass General Brigham health care system, analyzed National Vital Statistics System deaths for adults from 443 different occupations between January 1, 2020 and December 31, 2022. team looked at sociodemographic information, including age, gender, race, ethnicity and education level, in addition to the occupation the person held for most of their working life.
Of the nearly 9 million people from all occupations included in the study, 3.88% (348,328) died of Alzheimer’s disease. Among taxi drivers, 1.03% (171/16,658) died of Alzheimer’s disease, while among ambulance drivers this percentage was 0.74% (10/1348). After adjustment, ambulance drivers (0.91%) and taxi drivers (1.03%) had the lowest rates of deaths from Alzheimer’s disease of all occupations surveyed. This trend was not observed in other transportation-related jobs that use predetermined routes, such as bus drivers (3.11%) or airline pilots (4.57%), which are less dependent on real-time spatial and navigational processing. This trend was not visible in other forms of dementia.
“Our results highlight the possibility that neurological changes in the hippocampus or elsewhere in taxi and ambulance drivers may be responsible for the lower rates of Alzheimer’s disease,” said senior author Anupam B. Jena, MD, PhD, a physician at the Department of Medicine of Massachusetts General Hospital.
The authors note that this is an observational study, so no firm conclusions can be drawn about cause and effect. And the authors acknowledge the limitations, including that individuals at higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease are less likely to enter or maintain memory-intensive lanes such as taxi and ambulance driving. However, they say this is unlikely as symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease typically develop after working age.
“We do not view these findings as conclusive, but as hypothesis-generating,” Jena said. “But they suggest it is important to consider how occupations may influence the risk of death from Alzheimer’s disease and whether cognitive activities can potentially be preventive.”