The rate of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias is falling in the United States and some other rich countries — good news about an epidemic that is still growing simply because more people are living to an old age, new studies show. "For an individual, the actual risk of dementia seems to have declined," probably due to more education and control of health factors such as cholesterol and blood pressure, said Dr. Kenneth Langa. Alzheimer's will remain a major public health issue, but countries where rates are dropping may be able to lower current projections for spending and needed services, experts said. During that time, there were declines in smoking, heart disease and strokes, factors linked to dementia, and a rise in the number of people using blood pressure medicines and getting a high school diploma, which reduce the likelihood of developing the condition. "The results bring some hope that perhaps dementia cases might be preventable, or at least delayed" by improving health and education, said the study leader, Claudia Satizabal of Boston University. Researchers from the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases say that claims data from Germany's largest public health insurance company suggest that new cases of dementia declined significantly between 2007 and 2009 in men and women. The group now says dementia prevalence appears to have increased from about 5 percent to about 7 percent in East Asia, and in Sub-Saharan African from between 2 percent and 4 percent to nearly 5 percent.
Reported by SeattlePI.com 16 hours ago.
↧
