Unlocking Dementia Prevention: The Role of Technology in Supporting Brain Health

For lifestyle-oriented behaviours, such as physical activity and social engagement, the dominant barriers were motivational rather than related to awareness or understanding. Adults 40+ most commonly identified lack of motivation (34-40%), difficulty changing routines (22-26%) and lack of time (24-26%) as barriers to becoming more active or socially engaged.

In contrast, sensory health interventions appear constrained primarily by affordability and access. Hearing and vision loss generated the highest levels of cost-related barriers (selected by 42% of respondents) across all surveyed prevention factors, despite the growing scientific recognition of their importance for dementia risk.

Awareness of dementia prevention is steadily increasing, but confidence and follow-through remain low. Most people believe that dementia risk can be reduced, but don’t feel capable of doing so on their own. 

Innovation opportunities:   

• Create solutions that improve brain health by encouraging action rather than offering education alone. 

• Tap into existing motivations to help users form health habits through personalized coaching, reminders, accountability, and supportive feedback. 

Survey respondents expressed the strongest support for technologies they already use daily: smartphones, wearable devices, and other tools that monitor activity, manage chronic disease, and encourage social engagement. 

Innovation opportunities:  

• Accelerate adoption by embedding dementia prevention and brain health support into existing consumer products, instead of requiring users to adopt new technologies.  

• Connect with existing fitness, nutrition, sleep, hearing, vision, and cardiovascular tools that support cognitive health, and build dementia-prevention features into smartphones, tablets, and smartwatches rather than standalone products, lowering the barrier to adoption. 

Many respondents already exercise, maintain a healthy diet, manage blood pressure, and prioritize sleep, but they generally do so for overall health goals rather than dementia prevention. 

Innovation opportunities:  

• Highlight the benefits of existing products for brain health.  

• Connect the existing value of tools and services that support fitness, nutrition, sleep, hearing, vision, and cardiovascular health to cognitive health and dementia prevention. 

26% of survey respondents are already using AI systems in their daily lives, but trust is a major barrier to AI uptake in health and medicine. 

Innovation opportunities:  

• Demonstrate transparency, privacy, clinical validation, and human oversight to overcome the trust barrier. 

• Establish credibility with end users to build a competitive advantage as AI adoption grows. 

Unlike physical activity or social engagement, managing chronic health conditions and mental health depends heavily on trusted medical guidance. Survey respondents frequently reported uncertainty about which actions are effective in navigating these conditions, alongside difficulty accessing expert medical advice. 

Policy opportunities: 

• Introduce complementary approaches, such as remote care monitoring, virtual care, and team-based care models, alongside continued investment in primary care capacity to increase access to trusted information amid shortages of medical professionals. 

• Invest in policies that support both primary care capacity and alternative delivery models—rather than treating them as separate tracks—to make dementia risk reduction guidance accessible at scale. 

Canadians are increasingly aware that behaviour changes in midlife can have dementia prevention benefits in later years. Policies should reflect this lifespan approach, rather than exclusively supporting older persons. 

Policy opportunities: 

• Develop initiatives grounded in scientific evidence (e.g., the 2024 update of the Lancet Standing Commission for Dementia Prevention, Intervention and Care and the World Health Organization’s 2026 guidelines on reducing the risk of dementia) that help young and middle-aged adults find communities for meaningful social connections, engage in exercise, and manage cardiovascular and/or mental health conditions for long-term dementia prevention benefits. 

  E.g., workplace mental health benefits, community infrastructure that supports physical activity and social connection, and midlife cardiovascular screening programs could deliver long-term public health and economic returns by reducing dementia prevalence over time. 

Our findings demonstrate that hearing and vision care are two of the least recognized – but still scientifically meaningful – potentially modifiable risk factors for dementia. Almost half of respondents cited cost as the primary barrier to accessing these supports, underscoring affordability and access as the key obstacles preventing people from addressing them. 

Policy opportunities: 

• Consider expanding public or insurance coverage for hearing aids and vision care (e.g., subsidies, means-tested coverage, and/or inclusion in provincial health benefit plans) to remove the cost barrier to care that improves quality of life and supports dementia prevention long-term. 

The report finds widespread use of digital technologies among older persons and growing use of AI systems, such as chatbots. However, trust in AI-generated health advice remains low.  

Policy opportunities: 

• Establish regulatory frameworks, clinical validation standards, and clear disclosure policies for when AI is used in health interactions. 

• Ensure digital tools for brain health are developed and implemented into practice safely, with trust and privacy as foundational principles.