Programme Démence Prévention (pdp ): A Nation-Wide Programme for Dementia Prevention in Luxembourg

Objectives: To implement a multi-year nation-wide programme, by the means of a personalised lifestyle intervention, to prevent or to delay cognitive decline that can contribute to development of dementia in Luxembourg.
Methods: Participants with mild cognitive impairment, referred to the programme by their treating physician, undergo an extensive cognitive evaluation by a neuropsychologist on relevant neuropsychological domains as well as a structured dementia risk factor assessment. Based on these assessments, individualised lifestyle interventions are offered by diverse national partners involved in the programme, thus filling a gap of not yet reimbursed services in the Luxemburgish healthcare system. After the personalised lifestyle interventions, each participant will undergo a neuropsychological follow-up in order to re-evaluate his/her health status in terms of cognition.
Results: We established a participant-centred national network by presenting the programme on many outreach events and efficient stakeholder communication. The network raises the awareness of dementia prevention in the Luxembourgish population, fosters interdisciplinary communication between individual medical and non-medical healthcare professionals and allows for a successful recruitment of the target population. Moreover, we collect information about adherence to the suggested lifestyle changes, as well as the effectiveness of our interventions in reducing risk factors contributing to the onset of dementia.
Conclusions: We provide evidence for the feasibility of the implementation of a nation-wide dementia prevention programme including diverse partners offering personalised lifestyle interventions, which are easily transferrable to other countries. Future results from this programme may also help to integrate prevention interventions into the regular healthcare system.