The World Health Organization (WHO), a branch of the United Nations, and Alzheimer’s Disease International, just issued a 112 page report entitled, Dementia: a public health priority.
It is a well crafted and well written report that warrants first hand reading if you wish to educate yourself further about the spread of this fatal disease.
Because of the amount of information contained in this report, I have decided to share the most informative aspects of it in two parts. Part One, here, will highlight the more basic worldwide statistical data on dementia and what the report suggests ought to be done. I will devote a second followup blog; Part Two, devoted to what dementia is and an outline of its symptoms.
Alzheimer’s has finally gotten big enough, scary enough and definitely lethal enough to individuals and society as a whole that it has captured the attention of most of the world governments. In the report, there is a lot of language about dementia prevalence or how widespread it has grown.
Listed under the opening section of the report called the Executive Summary are some frightening statistics that follow here.
In 2010 the total number of people with dementia worldwide was estimated at 35.6 million with a projection to nearly double every 20 years. By the year 2030, the total will be 65.7 million and by the year 2050 the total will come to 115.4 million.
The total number of new cases of dementia each year worldwide is nearly 7.7 million, implying one new case every four seconds.
In 2010, the worldwide estimated costs of dementia was approximately $604 billion (in US dollars).
The following quote from the report speaks to risk factors associated with dementia.
“Research identifying modifiable risk factors of dementia is in its infancy. In the meantime, primary prevention should focus on targets suggested by current evidence. These include countering risk factors for vascular disease, including diabetes, mid-life hypertension, mid-life obesity, smoking and physical inactivity.”
A secondary headline portion of the report listed as Key Messages contains takeaway facts for
everyone.
Dementia is not a normal part of aging.
35.6 million people were estimated to be living with dementia 2 years ago. There are 7.7 million new cases of dementia each year. The accelerating rates of dementia are cause for immediate action, especially in low and middle income countries.
The huge cost of the disease will challenge health systems to deal with the predicted future increase of prevalence. The 2010 costs, noted at $604 billion, are set to increase even more quickly than the prevalence.
People live for many years after the onset of symptoms of dementia. With appropriate support, many can and should be enabled to continue to engage and contribute within society and have a good quality of life.
Dementia is overwhelming for the caregivers and adequate support is required for them from the health, social, financial and legal systems.
Countries must include dementia on their public health agendas. Sustained action and coordination is required across multiple levels and with all stake holders - at international, national, regional and local levels.
People with dementia and their caregivers often have unique insights to their condition and life. They should be involved in formulating the policies, plans, laws and services that relate to them.
The report summarizes what I would refer to as a ‘call-to-arms-list’ of steps to be taken.
These include:
Promoting a dementia friendly society globally by:
Making dementia a national public health and social care priority worldwide.
Improving public and professional attitudes to, and understanding of dementia.
Investing in health and social systems to improve care and services for people with dementia and their caregivers.
Increasing the priority given to dementia in the public health research agenda.
There are world nations ahead of the curve with respect to this disease as well as many that are well behind it.
Japan is one that is ahead of the dementia curve having developed it’s own public long-term care insurance system in April 2000.
Austria is another nation that has developed a program well ahead of many other nations. Austria offers a two week respite program for caregivers and people with dementia that includes time off and an educational program for the caregiver and a package of cognitive memory training, occupational therapy, and physical training for the person with dementia.
There is still an urgent need to stir up public awareness and understanding of what dementia is and what it is not across all levels of our world society. Raising awareness and advocacy are two of those basic first steps.
Part Two of this blog series will focus on an up-to-date definition of dementia and its symptoms.
Jeff Dodson
April 19th 2012
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