Music and Dementia Risk: A 10,893-Person Study, and the One Question It Can't Answer
A 39 percent lower risk of dementia is the kind of number that stops you scrolling, especially when the thing producing it is listening to music. That figure comes from a real study with almost eleven thousand participants, published in a respectable journal, and the finding is not made up. Whether it means what most of the coverage implies is a separate question.
What the study measured
Researchers at Monash University drew on data from the ASPREE trial and its ALSOP sub-study, following 10,893 community-dwelling Australians aged 70 and older who had no dementia diagnosis when they enrolled [1]. Participants reported how often they listened to music and how often they played an instrument. The team then tracked who went on to develop dementia or cognitive impairment no dementia (CIND), which is the diagnostic territory between normal aging and dementia proper.
People who reported always listening to music had a 39 percent lower rate of dementia than those who listened never, rarely, or only sometimes, and a 17 percent lower rate of CIND. Those who often or always played an instrument had a 35 percent lower dementia rate, though that result sat right at the edge of statistical significance. People doing both had a 33 percent lower dementia rate. Frequent listeners also held onto better global cognition and episodic memory over time.
The picture wasn't uniformly rosy. The benefit showed up in overall cognition and memory but not in the other cognitive domains tested, and music engagement had no association at all with how participants rated their own cognitive wellbeing. The associations were also stronger among participants with more than sixteen years of education.
What else could explain this
The design here is a cohort study, not a trial. Nobody was assigned to listen to music. Researchers observed what people were already doing and watched what happened, which means the finding shows an association and cannot establish that music caused it.
The specific problem here is reverse causation. The brain changes underlying dementia begin ten to twenty years before anyone gets a diagnosis, and the early phase erodes exactly the kinds of engagement this study measured: initiating activities, following complex sound, sustaining attention, enjoying things. Someone in that silent window may stop reaching for music because of the process already underway. The authors handled this reasonably by only counting dementia cases from year three onward, which strips out the most obvious cases. Three years is short against a two-decade prodrome.
Then there is what wasn't adjusted for. The analysis accounted for age, gender, and education. It did not account for hearing loss, which is one of the largest modifiable dementia risk factors identified anywhere in the literature and which also, obviously, makes music less appealing. Nor did it account for depression, physical activity, social contact, or income, all of which travel together and all of which independently affect dementia risk. A broader review of lifestyle activities and cognitive reserve reached the same conclusion about this whole body of research: promising at the level of early randomized trials, yet underdeveloped, with basic questions about dose and durability still open [2]. Trials designed specifically to test whether adding music training changes cognitive trajectory in at-risk older adults are underway [3]. Those are the studies that will settle this.
The naturopathic lens
None of that makes the finding useless. It shifts what the finding is evidence of.
Music engagement in a 78-year-old is rarely just music. It tends to sit inside a life that also contains routine, pleasure, anticipation, other people, and a nervous system regulated enough to want stimulation rather than avoid it. Cognitive reserve, the buffer that lets a brain absorb pathology before function visibly declines, gets built by that whole pattern, not by any single input. When I see a signal like this in the data, my read is that it is pointing at engaged living more than at a specific intervention.
The hearing question is where I'd spend a patient's attention. Untreated hearing loss is common, under-addressed, strongly linked to cognitive decline, and directly stands between an older adult and every reason to put music on. Getting hearing tested is a more concrete lever than any listening recommendation, and it makes the music available again as a side effect.
Putting this into practice
The risk-benefit math on this one is unusually simple. Listening to music daily costs nothing, interacts with no medication, has no side effects, and is pleasant. Even on imperfect evidence, that is an easy yes for anyone who enjoys it. Singing, playing, and group music-making add movement, breath work, and social contact on top, which is a reasonable argument for choosing the choir over the headphones whenever both are available.
What I would not do is treat this as a substitute for the interventions with stronger evidence behind them. Hearing and vision correction, blood pressure control, sleep, physical activity, glycemic control, and staying socially connected all have more robust support for brain health than any leisure activity does. Put music on because it makes the day better and the association is encouraging. Keep the rest of the list in view too.
References
Jaffa E, Wu Z, Owen A, et al. What is the association between music-related leisure activities and dementia risk? A cohort study. Int J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2025;40(10):e70163. PMID 41088732. DOI 10.1002/gps.70163. Original digest link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/gps.70163
Christie GJ, Hamilton T, Manor BD, et al. Do lifestyle activities protect against cognitive decline in aging? A review. Front Aging Neurosci. 2017;9:381. PMID 29209201. DOI 10.3389/fnagi.2017.00381
Belleville S, Moussard A, Ansaldo AI, et al. Rationale and protocol of the ENGAGE study: a double-blind randomized controlled preference trial measuring the effect of a cognitive and leisure-based intervention in older adults with a memory complaint. Trials. 2019;20(1):282. PMID 31118095. DOI 10.1186/s13063-019-3250-6
Reference metadata verified against PubMed.
One last thing
This is educational content, not medical advice, and it can't speak to your situation or your family history. If you're worried about memory changes in yourself or someone you love, that's a conversation to have with a clinician who can evaluate it properly. Concerns about cognition deserve a proper workup rather than a lifestyle checklist.
If this resonates with what you're experiencing and you'd like to explore a naturopathic approach, book a consultation with our clinic.
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