Peter Carey1*
Dementia is a major global public health challenge, with a substantial proportion of risk attributed to potentially modifiable factors across the life course. Despite this, public understanding of dementia prevention remains limited and is often characterised by misconceptions regarding causation, inevitability, and controllability. Dementia is frequently perceived as a normal consequence of ageing, while awareness of modifiable risk factors is uneven across cardiovascular, metabolic, psychosocial, and environmental domains. This conceptual review synthesises literature from dementia literacy research, health literacy theory, behavioural science, and implementation science to examine the persistent gap between epidemiological evidence and public understanding. It argues that this gap cannot be explained by information deficits alone, but instead reflects the interpretive processes through which biomedical evidence is filtered through pre-existing mental models, health literacy capacities, behavioural appraisals, and structural conditions. Building on this synthesis, the paper proposes the Dementia Prevention Literacy Translation Framework (DPLTF), which conceptualises dementia prevention literacy as a multi-level, dynamic translation process linking biomedical evidence, public mental models, health literacy processes, behavioural appraisal, and preventive action. Rather than a linear pathway, the framework emphasises reciprocal interactions and feedback loops across these levels, alongside cross-cutting structural and environmental influences that shape opportunities for interpretation and action. The DPLTF is presented as an interpretive conceptual model rather than a predictive theory. Its central contribution is to position public interpretive mental models as a key mediating mechanism in the translation of epidemiological evidence into behavioural engagement. The framework highlights why increases in awareness alone are unlikely to produce sustained behavioural change without addressing how individuals understand, evaluate, and integrate dementia risk information within their social and structural contexts.
Ultimately, bridging the gap between evidence and action requires multi-level interventions that extend beyond awareness-raising to strengthen interpretive capacity, support integrated understandings of dementia risk, enhance perceived behavioural control, and address structural barriers to prevention.
Dementia Prevention Literacy, Health Literacy, Dementia Risk, Conceptual Framework, Behavioural Translation, And Public Health Education
Peter Carey, Independent Researcher, Australia.
Carey, P. (2026). A conceptual framework for understanding dementia prevention literacy: Bridging the translation gap between epidemiological evidence and public action. Epidemiol Public Health OA, 2(1), 01-12.