🧠 Preserving Memory, Protecting Rights: A New Era in Ageing Policy

A breakthrough study on dementia, an historic UN resolution, and the urgent case for protecting the health and wellbeing of older people.

When we talk about dementia prevention, there is no more definitive work than that of the Lancet standing Commission on dementia prevention, intervention and care (Livingston, 2024). There is now compelling evidence for 14 modifiable risk factors, the most recent being vision loss and high cholesterol. A must read!

Another emerging factor in dementia prevention—rarely discussed until now—is vaccination.

A groundbreaking study published in Nature this month has found that the herpes zoster (shingles) vaccine not only reduces the risk of shingles—but may also reduce the risk of dementia by 20% (Eyting et al., 2025). Researchers leveraged an unexpected consequence of policy. Individuals born on or after Sept 2, 1933, were eligible for a government-funded shingles vaccine, while those born just days earlier were not. So similar populations could be compared with dramatically different vaccination rates.

The results were striking. Those who received the vaccine were significantly less likely to receive a new dementia diagnosis over a seven-year follow-up period.

🧠 Why does this matter?

This is causal evidence—rather than simple correlation—linking vaccination to reduced dementia risk. Unlike prior studies limited by observational design, this one used a regression discontinuity framework to reduce confounding—suggesting the vaccine’s impact may be causal. That said, the study does report some limitations.

Researchers observed a 3.5 percentage point absolute reduction, corresponding to a 20% relative reduction in dementia diagnoses, particularly among women. These effects are consistent with a broader understanding of how infections, immune responses, and chronic inflammation may contribute to neurodegeneration.

"Through the use of a unique natural experiment, this study provides evidence of a dementia-preventing or dementia-delaying effect from zoster vaccination"

— Eyting et al., Nature, 2025

🌍 A Historic Step for Older Adults' Rights

As the Nature study linking shingles vaccination to reduced dementia risk captured global attention, the world simultaneously reached a turning point in ageing policy—one with striking relevance to the study’s findings.

On 3 April 2025, the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a landmark resolution (HRC/RES/58/XX) to establish an intergovernmental working group tasked with drafting a legally binding convention on the rights of older persons (United Nations Human Rights Council, 2025). After 14 years of debate through the UN Open-Ended Working Group on Ageing, the resolution reflects growing global concern about persistent gaps in protecting older adults—from discrimination to inadequate access to healthcare, including immunisation.

Both the study and the resolution signal a long-overdue recognition: ageing is not just a biological process—it’s a political priority. If vaccines can help preserve memory and independence, then access to them must be treated not as a privilege, but as a right.

Led by a core group including Argentina, Brazil, The Gambia, the Philippines, and Slovenia, the resolution passed with support from 68 countries—marking a historic step toward recognising ageing as a human rights issue, not just a social or medical one.

🔬 Where Science Meets Justice

These two developments—one from medical research, the other from international law—point to the same urgent truth: older adults remain among the most at-risk, yet most neglected, populations in global health.

Despite being more vulnerable to infectious diseases and their long-term consequences, older adults are routinely:

• Excluded from clinical trials

• Underserved in vaccination programs

• Overlooked in global health strategies

The zoster vaccine study is a wake-up call. Shingles vaccination isn’t just about avoiding a rash or a week in bed—it may also protect memory, independence, and quality of life.

And now, with the UN resolution, there’s a path forward to making these protections a matter of international law.

✊ Civil Society Leads the Way

This milestone was no accident.

It was the result of coordinated, sustained advocacy from civil society—including the Global Alliance for the Rights of Older People (GAROP), HelpAge International, Age Platform Europe, AARP, the International Federation on Ageing, and many others—who helped push ageing from the margins to the centre of global human rights discourse (Global Alliance for the Rights of Older Persons, 2025).

🚀 What Comes Next?

The intergovernmental working group established by the UN Human Rights Council will now begin the complex task of negotiating and drafting the convention—guided by input from civil society, human rights advocates, and ageing experts around the world.

Scientists will continue to push the frontiers of research, exploring how vaccines and immune modulation may help delay or prevent conditions like Alzheimer’s disease.

But science and diplomacy aren’t enough on their own. Health systems must act—decisively and urgently—to prioritise adult immunisation as a core pillar of healthy ageing policy, not a secondary concern.

🧭 Final Thought

We are entering a new era—where vaccination may help prevent dementia, and international law may finally protect the dignity of growing old.

Let’s not waste this momentum.

Because the question is no longer whether we can protect older adults better. It’s whether we will.

📚 References

• Livingston, G., Huntley, J., Liu, K. Y., Costafreda, S. G., Selbæk, G., Alladi, S., Ames, D., Banerjee, S., Burns, A., Brayne, C., Fox, N. C., Ferri, C. P., Gitlin, L. N., Howard, R., Kales, H. C., Kivimäki, M., Larson, E. B., Nakasujja, N., Rockwood, K., Samus, Q., … Mukadam, N. (2024). Dementia prevention, intervention, and care: 2024 report of the Lancet standing Commission. Lancet (London, England), 404(10452), 572–628. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(24)01296-0

• Eyting, M., Xie, M., Michalik, F., et al. (2025). A natural experiment on the effect of herpes zoster vaccination on dementia. Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-08800-x

• United Nations Human Rights Council (2025). Resolution on the human rights of older persons, HRC/RES/58/XX, Geneva.

• Global Alliance for the Rights of Older Persons (2025). Statement on the adoption of the UNHRC resolution on older persons’ rights,