Jørgensen and her team analyzed data from 666,333 Danish men born between 1939 and 1959. This cohort included 70,608 brothers and 7,388 twins. They found that 10,599 men from the sample developed dementia as they aged.

The researchers then performed an adjusted analysis of the group and found the risk of dementia dropped by 10% for every six centimeters of height beyond the average. The potential role of intelligence or education on one’s risk of dementia was also considered, but only resulted in marginal relationship adjustments.

One result the researchers found very interesting was that the relationship between height and dementia existed even when brothers of different heights were examined, suggesting that genetics alone don’t explain why shorter men tend to develop dementia more often than taller men. This was true even regarding twins.