About
Kay Deckers works as an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Alzheimer Centrum Limburg/School for Mental Health and Neuroscience, at Maastricht University. He was trained in neuropsychology and epidemiology. In his research, he investigates the effects of risk and protective factors for cognitive decline and dementia within several population-based cohort studies. He was one of the developers of the well validated “LIfestyle for BRAin health’’ (LIBRA) score, a modifiable dementia risk index which quantifies someone’s potential for dementia risk reduction. Additionally, he is very concerned with preventive strategies for a brain-healthy society (e.g. development and rollout of public health awareness campaigns, development of the MijnBreincoach app brain-health tool). Kay is member of the advisory board of the National Dementia Strategy 2021-2030 (Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sports) and is member/co-chair of the INTERDEM Task Force Prevention. His two (ultimate) goals are (1) to raise more substantial awareness in the general public that people can do something about their own dementia risk and improve their brain health; and (2) to implement the topic of brain health/dementia risk reduction in primary care.
Declaration of interest
I received funding from:
- Dutch Research Council (NWO)
- The Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development (ZonMw)
- Alzheimer Nederland