Interesting results from two major studies, supported by the Medical Research Council, have revealed that the number of people with dementia in the UK is substantially lower than expected because overall prevalence in the 65 and over age group has dropped.
The results indicate that overall prevalence has gone down by 1.8% to an estimated 6.5% of the population. Using the current age profiles of the UK this corresponds to an estimated 670,000 people over the age of 65 living with dementia, a reduction of more than 20% in the number of people projected to have dementia today compared with 20 years ago.
Prevalence of dementia in women remains higher than men, with 7.7% of women over 65 estimated to have dementia, compared with 4.9% of men. Although the overall prevalence of dementia has fallen, the prevalence of dementia among people living in care homes has increased, from 56% of care home residents twenty years ago, to 70% today.
The figures also show that there is variation in the proportion of people with dementia across differing areas of deprivation, suggesting that health inequalities during life may influence a person’s likelihood of developing dementia.
“This study provides compelling evidence of a reduction in the prevalence of dementia in the older population over two decades,” said Professor Carol Brayne from the Cambridge Institute of Public Health at Cambridge University, who led the study. “Whether or not these gains for the current older population will be borne out in later generations would seem to depend on whether further improvements in primary prevention and effective health care for conditions which increase dementia risk can be achieved, including addressing inequalities.”
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