Children with higher IQs may be less likely than their peers to go on to develop the most common type of dementia after Alzehimer’s disease.

Vascular dementia is a type of dementia caused by problems with the supply of blood to the brain. Risk factors can include high blood pressure and advancing age and it is commonly associated with patients who have suffered a stroke.

A team of Scottish researchers identified 173 people with dementia who were born in 1921 and had participated in the Scottish Mental Survey of 1932. These were compared to a control group.

The study found that those who went on to develop vascular dementia later in life had lower IQs in childhood compared to the control group.

However no such link was found in relation to Alzheimer’s disease – the most common form of dementia.

“Lower (childhood) cognitive ability is a risk factor for vascular dementia, but not Alzheimer’s disease. This emphasises that prevention strategies could be implemented from childhood onwards,” the team said.

Details of these findings are published in the journal, Neurology.

For more information on dementia and Alzheimer's disease, see...http://www.irishhealth.com/clin/alzheim/index.html