Alzheimer's Association partners with NPHA team for new brain health report

For nearly two decades, the Alzheimer's Association has collected and published annual comprehensive data reports about dementia and related disorders, and their prevention, treatment and other issues. 

The latest edition of Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures contains a special report, based on a survey conducted in partnership with the team at IHPI's National Poll on Healthy Aging. 

Titled "Brain Health in America: Understanding and Supporting Lifelong Cognitive Health," the special report includes data gathered in early 2026 from a poll of a nationally representative sample of more than 3,800 people age 40 and up. 

The data show that nearly all (99%) say maintaining brain health — how well individuals think, learn and remember — is at least as important as physical health. Yet only 9% say they know a lot about how to maintain it.

More than two-thirds worry about their brain health and about developing Alzheimer’s disease or other types of dementia. Most believe lifestyle behaviors are very important for brain health. Fewer than half strongly link these behaviors with reducing the risk of Alzheimer’s or other dementias.

Scott Roberts, Ph.D., the poll's associate director and a Professor in the U-M School of Public Health, and Dianne Singer, M.P.H., the poll's senior project manager, led the collaboration with the the association to design the survey and analyze the results, along with other members of the NPHA team. Roberts is the Outreach, Recruitment & Engagement Core Lead at the Michigan Alzheimer's Disease Center.

Further analyses of the data will be forthcoming from the team, and will be available through the NPHA site. To learn more about the findings as they are released, and other reports and findings from the NPHA and the Michigan Poll on Healthy Aging, sign up for the NPHA email list. 

In addition to the support received from the Alzheimer's Association for the brain health survey, the NPHA is supported by Michigan Medicine, and the Michigan Poll on Health Aging is supported by the Michigan Health Endowment Fund.