Global Epidemiology of Dementia: Alzheimer’s and Vascular Types

Abstract

The prevalence of dementia varies substantially worldwide. This is partially attributed to the lack of methodological uniformity among studies, including diagnostic criteria and different mean population ages. However, even after considering these potential sources of bias, differences in age-adjusted dementia prevalence still exist among regions of the world. In Latin America, the prevalence of dementia is higher than expected for its level of population aging. This phenomenon occurs due to the combination of low average educational attainment and high vascular risk profile. Among developed countries, Japan seems to have the lowest prevalence of dementia. Studies that evaluated the immigration effect of the Japanese and blacks to USA evidenced that acculturation increases the relative proportion of AD cases compared to VaD. In the Middle East and Africa, the number of dementia cases will be expressive by 2040. In general, low educational background and other socioeconomic factors have been associated with high risk of obesity, sedentarism, diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and metabolic syndrome, all of which also raise the risk of VaD and AD. Regulating these factors is critical to generate the commitment to make dementia a public health priority.

Controlled population-based comparative study of USA and international adult [55-74] neurological deaths 1989-2014

“…There are confirmed rises of ALS from a number of Western clinical studies1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 25 as well as small increases in Asian and Latin American countries 18, 19…”

“…This was followed‐up in a second international study taking the results to 2010. The latter analysis used the later baseline years of 1989‐91, which confirmed the earlier onset of neurological morbidity and that neurological deaths continued to increase in the majority of the countries reviewed 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. Rises in USA the over‐75s neurological deaths were considerable as the USA had significantly greater increases than fourteen of the other twenty nations, with threefold rises in American men and a fivefold increase in women in just 21 years 8.…”

“…From neurological studies covering the later part of the 20th century, evidence is growing of increases in a range of neurological morbidity and mortality especially related to Alzheimer's and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), known as Motor Neurone Disease (MND) in Europe 1, 2, 3, 4. The accumulation of evidence has continued to build in this century 5, 6, 7, 8.…”

HCN Channels: From the Role in Chronic Cerebral Hypoperfusion-Induced Cognitive Impairments to a New Therapeutic Target for Vascular Dementia

“…Vascular dementia (VaD) is the second leading form of dementia after Alzheimer's disease (AD) among western countries [1]. It is a progressive disease caused by cerebrovascular diseases with the pathologic features of reduced blood flow in the brain that affects cognitive abilities [2][3][4].…”

A Business Model for Digital Healthcare Environments: An Organic Approach and a Use Case for Handling Cognitive Impairment

“…The prevalence of Cognitive Impairment (CI) in elderly patients is one of the key issues in Western Countries since it involves loss of memory, cognitive slow down, aphasia, apraxia, sensorial and movement deficit, personality and mood disorders (Alexander et al 2015;Rizzi et al 2014). The elderly people with cognitive limits -especially those living in solitudeare significantly exposed to undeniable risks for their own safety: falling, malnutrition or unhealthy nutrition, hygiene issues due to lack of mobility, isolation and depression (Alzheimer's Association 2016).…”