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Dementia MattersAuthor: Wisconsin Alzheimers Disease Research Center
Dementia Matters is a podcast about Alzheimers disease and other causes of dementia. Creator and host Dr. Nathaniel Chin interviews leading scientists and caregiving experts to bring listeners the latest in Alzheimers disease news, research and caregiver resources. Brought to you by the Wisconsin Alzheimers Disease Research Center, find show notes and more resources at adrc.wisc.edu/dementia-matters. Language: en Genres: Health & Fitness, Medicine, Science Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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On the Pulse: How Resting Heart Rate Improves a Dementia Risk Score’s Accuracy
Episode 228
Tuesday, 10 February, 2026
What if your heartbeat could help determine your dementia risk? The CAIDE dementia risk score has long helped clinicians estimate midlife risk for dementia using cardiovascular health factors, but its accuracy hasn’t been equal across populations. New research suggests that integrating resting heart rate meaningfully improves predictive performance across most racial groups. In this interview, Dr. Newman Sze and Shakiru Alaka join us to dig into how and why resting heart rate enhances CAIDE’s accuracy, what the data shows across different racial groups, and what this could mean for earlier, more equitable identification of dementia risk in both research and clinical settings. Guests: Newman Sze, PhD, professor of health sciences, Brock University, Canada Research Chair in Mechanisms of Health and Disease, and Shakiru Alaka, MS, senior analyst, Canadian Institute for Health Information, data scientist, Western University Show Notes Read Shakiru and Dr. Sze’s study, “Enhancing the validity of CAIDE dementia risk scores with resting heart rate and machine learning: An analysis from the National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center across all races/ethnicities,” published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia online. Learn more about Shakiru and Dr. Sze’s research from this article on the Brock University website. Learn more about Dr. Sze and his research from his bio on the Brock University website. Look into more of Shakiru’s research from his Google Scholar page. Connect with us Find transcripts and more at our website. Email Dementia Matters: dementiamatters@medicine.wisc.edu Follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Subscribe to the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center’s e-newsletter. Enjoy Dementia Matters? Consider making a gift to the Dementia Matters fund through the UW Initiative to End Alzheimer’s. All donations go toward outreach and production. Learn about and pre-order Dr. Chin’s book, When Memory Fades: What to Expect at Every Stage, from Early Signs to Full Support for Alzheimer's and Dementia, out June 2, 2026.
