FINGERS Plus for Women: A New Collaboration

FINGERS Plus for Women: A New Collaboration between the Global BHP BrainTrust and FINGERS Brain Health Institute

This week the Global BHP BrainTrust and the FINGERS Brain Health Institute, led by Dr Miia Kivipelto as a hub for FINGERS research scientific coordination worldwide in 68 countries, announced FINGERS Plus for Women, an initiative aimed at:

• Harnessing key findings from the FINGER study to raise awareness and explore innovative avenues for dementia prevention in women, across their lifespan, through tailored research and intervention programs.
• Offering women who face a higher genetic and biological predisposition targeted lifestyle interventions to reduce dementia risk

Dr Andrea Pfeifer, Chair of the Global BHP BrainTrust, hosting a Lausanne XI reception at the Olympic Museum, launched the joint announcement framing this vision: “The ultimate goal is to influence national and global strategies and activities focused on brain health and dementia prevention for women, bringing together the unique experiences and networks of the BHP BrainTrust and FINGERS Brain Health Institute.”

The Finnish Geriatric Intervention Study to Prevent Cognitive Impairment and Disability (FINGER) is the first trial in the world to demonstrate that multidomain lifestyle interventions can improve our brain health and prevent cognitive decline by about 30%. According to the latest evidence 45% of all dementias are likely linked to modifiable risk factors creating great potential for prevention.

Dr Miia Kivipelto shared her excitement about this initiative “Studying sex and gender differences can be a gateway to precision medicine in dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. We aim to study sex and gender differences using the diverse WW-FINGERS data and initiate new preventive FINGERS Plus interventions combining FINGER with pharmacological or other interventions based on various risk profiles.”

The FINGERS Plus for Women initiative will promote and further develop the multi-domain preventive life-style intervention FINGER model and explore new modifiable risk and protective factors, such as stress, sleep, education, music, diet and the microbiome. It will stimulate joint, global actions to promote women’s brain health and induce the implementation of gender-based precision prevention approaches.