Dementia rates in Miami Dade are among the highest in the country while Utah is on the low end. What is striking is that Utah has worse air quality, which is a known risk factor, yet still shows lower prevalence.
Why is that?
replies(9):
Why is that?
Also Utah has worse air quality than Miami? Where in Utah? My trips to Utah I remember pristine air but of course I didn’t have an air monitor on board other than my nose.
Edit: Oh I see
>Utah, particularly in urban areas like the Wasatch Front, frequently experiences worse air quality than Miami. Utah's air quality issues are often caused by unique geographical and meteorological conditions. In winter, temperature inversions trap cold, polluted air in the valleys, leading to high levels of particulate matter (PM2.5) pollution. In the summer, heat and sunlight can create high levels of ground-level ozone. The American Lung Association has ranked cities in the Salt Lake City-Provo-Orem area among the worst for ozone and short-term particle pollution.
>In contrast, Miami's air quality is generally "Good" throughout the year, with occasional exceptions. The primary pollutants are also PM2.5 and ozone, but the geographical and weather conditions do not contribute to the same level of pollutant trapping as in Utah. The city has programs in place for air quality monitoring and standards.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:China_population_sex_by...
https://www.populationpyramid.net/united-states-of-america/2...
Utah has the highest birth rate and therefore the youngest population of the 50 states (median age 31.5 years). Florida is not the oldest state, but it's near the top (median age 42.7 years).
I can walk in cities.
That's strange, because the dementia mortality rate is high...
Studies like this show that air quality is correlated with dementia in general, but we don’t know if that means air quality directly contributes to dementia or if air quality just happens to be correlated with something else that contributes to dementia.
As for Utah: They have lower rates of drinking and drug use and higher levels of physical fitness and outdoor activity, among other factors.
Utah’s average air quality also isn’t as bad as you hear about. The mountain geography can trap pollution on certain winter days, but the average air quality in Salt Lake City is surprisingly better than most metro areas with 500K or more people: https://www.axios.com/local/salt-lake-city/2024/03/26/air-qu...
> In 2023, Salt Lake had the 11th-lowest average particulate matter levels, known as PM2.5, of 103 cities reviewed by IQAir, a Swiss air quality technology company.
