Kontinuierliches Musikhören war bei älteren Erwachsenen mit einem um bis zu 39 % geringeren Demenzrisiko verbunden, während das regelmäßige Spielen eines Instruments mit einem um 35 % geringeren Risiko verbunden war. Bei hochgebildeten Menschen mit 16 oder mehr Bildungsjahren war das ständige Hören von Musik mit einem um 63 % geringeren Risiko verbunden.

I’ve linked to the news release in the post above. In this comment, for those interested, here’s the link to the peer reviewed journal article:

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/gps.70163

From the linked article:

A new study provides evidence that older adults who frequently engage with music may have a significantly lower risk of developing dementia. The research, published in the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, indicates that **consistently listening to music was associated with up to a 39 percent reduced risk, while regularly playing an instrument was linked to a 35 percent reduced risk**. These findings suggest that music-related activities could be an accessible way to support cognitive health in later life.

The research team also explored whether a person’s level of education affected these associations. The results suggest that education may play a role, particularly for music listening. The association between listening to music and a lower dementia risk was most pronounced in individuals **with 16 or more years of education. In this highly educated group, always listening to music was linked to a 63 percent reduced risk**.

The findings were less consistent for those with 12 to 15 years of education, where no significant protective association was observed. The researchers note this particular result was unexpected and may warrant further investigation to understand potential underlying factors.

Yas, Bad Bunny on repeat for those brain gains!

I appreciate you positing this, OP, so not directed at you, but this is so poorly described in the study I almost question if it is a real study. 

On the website they say:

“Always listening to music” has a benefit.”

Vs

“never/rarely/sometimes” has not this benefit. 

By “always” they mean every minute of every day?
Can we sleep and go shopping without music or do we then fall into the “sometimes” category?

I can’t see the “always” or “sometimes” qualified in hours-per-day anywhere. 

I wonder if scientists can do some studies on electronic music production and various techniques and processes involved.

I wonder if video game music counts.

Could it be that people with higher education are just more wealthy and tend to have a more healthy lifestyle than compared with lower educated people?
Don’t get me wrong, I strongly believe that listening actively to music has indeed benefits on our brain health, but I don’t think that these effects are stronger in higher educated people.

Is there something I’m missing?
Could it be that higher educated people tend to analyse music more actively on different layers while listening and therefore the brain has to coordinate/synchronise more parts of it than usual lower educated music listeners?

What do you think?

16 years of what sort of education? 12 of regular school plus 4 of college or 16 years in some sort of higher education?