With the aging of the global population, the prevalence of cognitive dysfunction is projected to increase rapidly in the elderly. Following tumors, cardio-cerebrovascular diseases and diabetes mellitus, cognitive dysfunction related diseases have become a group of important diseases that seriously affect the quality of life of the elderly and bring a heavy burden to the family and society. Strong evidence supports the benefits of changing potential risk factors for cognitive impairment in the elderly. Changes in education, nutrition, health care and lifestyle and control of various controllable risk factors will be powerful strategies to reduce the global burden. In this article, we review the controllable risk factors of cognitive impairment in the elderly in order to provide some help for better prevention of its occurrence and progress.