November 22, 2016.
According to the World Health Organization, the number of cases of dementia is increasing every year around the world. How to cope ?
Increase in life expectancy
According to a study conducted in 2013 by researchers from the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm), the number of cases of dementia in the general population between 2010 and 2030 will increase by 75% and by 200% in the over 90s. Data corroborated by the WHO, which explains thatthere are currently 47.5 million people living with dementia worldwide and 7.7 million new cases appear each year.
How to explain these increases in cases of dementia? According to the researchers, the increase in life expectancy largely explains this state of affairs: life expectancy should indeed reach 87.6 years for women and 81.5 for men in 2030, i.e. + 2.8 years and + 3.5 years compared to today.
An evolution which should be amplified
” If the number of cases is low before age 60, it drastically increases to around 10% of the 80-year-old population, about 20% of those aged 85 and up to 30% of those aged 90 », Explains André Nieoullon, professor of neurosciences at the University of Aix-Marseille, in an interview for Atlantico. ” And yet, some studies go so far as to estimate that at age 90, it is about 50% of people who would be affected.. “
In France, in 2010, the number of cases of dementia was evaluated between 750,000 and 850,000 cases, or more than 1.2% of the total population. Note thatcurrently, there is no cure for dementia or modify its evolution and that Alzheimer’s disease is the cause of 60 to 70% of cases.
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