Aging of the population, smoking, obesity: so many reasons that suggest that the number of people suffering from dementia is likely to increase sharply in the decades to come.
- The number of dementia cases in the world could exceed 150 million in 2050
- Scientists call for accelerated prevention and treatment research
The Alzheimer Association’s 2021 International Conference in Denver does not bring good news: worldwide cases of dementia are expected to triple by 2050, affecting more than 150 million people! While positive parameters such as improved access to education indicate a possible decrease in the prevalence of these dementias (less 6.2 million cases by 2050), other causes such as smoking, he increase in body mass index and cases of hyperglycaemia could thwart this development by causing an increase of 6.8 million additional cases of dementia.
To arrive at these predictions, scientists from the University of Washington, exploited data on health trends in the world between 1999 and 2019. From these elements, they consider that cases of dementia would increase from 57.4 million in 2019 to 152.8 million in 2050. This could be, attributed to the dual effect of population growth and aging, “although the importance of these two factors varies by region of the world”. “The projected sharp increase in the number of people expecting dementia underscores the vital need for research focused on finding effective treatments and interventions for prevention; without treatments to stop, slow or prevent Alzheimer’s disease and all the other dementia, this number will increase beyond 2050 and will continue to have an impact on individuals, caregivers and health systems and governments around the world”, underlines Emma Nichols who led this work.
At the same time, the researchers looked at the mortality due to these dementias. And here too the results are worrying: the death rate linked to Alzheimer’s disease would have increased by 38% between 1990 and 2019.
350,000 new early onset dementias each year
Bad news also about the age at which the disease appears. Scientists from Maastricht University in the Netherlands have looked at data on how many people have developed dementia before the age of 65. With a disease incidence rate of 10 new cases per 100,000 people, they conclude that 350,000 people develop dementia at a younger age each year. To be precise, the incidence of these early onset dementias appears similar in men and women and is higher for Alzheimer’s disease than for dementias of vascular origin.
“These results should raise awareness among healthcare professionals, researchers and policy makers as they show that a significant number of people are newly affected by dementia praecox each year and show the need for investment to better prevent and treat dementia in early start”, specify the scientists of Maastricht.
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