A new report on the global dimensions of Alzheimer’s disease says the overall shift toward older societies on the planet means that 9.9 million people will develop dementia every year, a faster pace than previously estimated.
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ADI’s chief executive, Marc Wortmann, said: “The rising global cost of dementia will pose serious challenges to health and social care systems all around the world”. That number – which is larger than the population of Spain – will nearly double every 20 years, reaching 131.5 million in 2050, the report says.
“In recent years world leaders have united in their aim to tackle dementia, but while increases in research investment have been welcome, funding is still low in proportion to the scale of the challenge”. Numbers are expected to rise with aging populations and as more cases are identified.
The projected costs for care of people with dementia will also grow.
As treatments and outcomes for other diseases like cancer, heart disease, and stroke improve and become available to developing countries, more people are living to the age where dementia and Alzheimer Dementia become more common. “We now believe that we underestimated the current and future scale of the epidemic by 12-13 per cent in the 2009 World Alzheimer Report, with costs growing more rapidly than the numbers of people affected”, said Prince.
It also showed some 58% of those living with dementia were in low and middle-income countries, which had less capacity to manage the costs of the disease.
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Ms Bennett noted Alzheimer’s Australia has called on the government to implement a national dementia strategy and for more emphasis to be put on risk reduction and prevention programs. ADI is urging policy makers around the world to approach the issue with a broader agenda and a wider representation of countries and regions, particularly those in the G20 group of nations.
