2024-10-07 15:56:27
Every three seconds, someone somewhere in the world develops dementia. If by 2030 specialists estimate that there will be at least 82 million people diagnosed with dementia, that number will rise to 152 million in 2050, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Dementia is a loss of brain function that occurs due to certain diseases and affects one or more brain functions such as memory, thinking, language, judgment or behavior. It is a serious neurocognitive disorder, and Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of dementia, although it is not the only one. Most dementias are degenerative and irreversible, as well as progressing in most cases without really noticeable symptoms for years.
Prevention
While scientific research focuses mainly on two factors: early diagnosis and treatments in case of diagnosis, other studies examine how to act to prevent dementia in the at-risk population. Doing the latter would go a long way toward reducing the subsequent costs of caring for and treating this disease.
With a global cost that currently exceeds one billion dollars but could reach almost three trillion dollars by 2030, according to the WHO, the incidence of dementia is highest in low- and middle-income countries, where the determinants of services socio-healthcare plays a fundamental role in its prevalence.
In Latin America, a recent study published in International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry found that care-dependent older adults are more likely to experience loneliness and social isolation, factors that exacerbate dementia. Based on the findings, the researchers recommend public policies to ensure healthy aging.
Look ahead
“With increasing life expectancy and rapid ageing, there is an increasing number of older people who experience functional decline, an increased need for care and support, and are at greater risk of insufficient social interaction,” they summarize Qian Gao and colleagues, authors of the study. .
Longitudinal research on the interaction between loneliness, social isolation, and care dependency remains limited. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the longitudinal reciprocal association between social isolation/loneliness and care dependency among older adults in Latin America and China.
They conclude that “older people who are dependent on care are at risk of developing loneliness and social isolation. It is essential to develop complex care models that use a social approach to address social and care needs in a comprehensive way, especially for the group of people “elderly with declining functional capacity”.
Environmental factors
Another study in Latin America, published in Alzheimer’s and dementiaobserved that social and environmental factors are even more relevant than genetics in predicting the prevalence of dementia. This means that educational attainment, access to health care, and experiences of racial segregation may explain disparities in dementia incidence among racial and ethnic minorities.
“These findings highlight that social and environmental factors, as opposed to genetic ancestry, likely play a more critical role in determining racial disparities in cognitive performance and the subsequent prevalence of dementia,” concludes Jorge Llibre Guerra, PhD, of the Department of Neurology at University of Washington School of Medicine and colleagues.
He explains that interventions such as improving education and facilitating healthcare to reduce disparities could not only reduce the incidence of dementia, but also non-communicable diseases. “This approach also relieves economic pressures on families and social services, making it a cost-effective strategy to mitigate the impacts of dementia, particularly in diverse populations such as those in Latin America,” says Llibre Guerra.
Multi-domain interventions
Without a cure and with the progressive aging of the world population, the trend is to increase spending on dementia care. A review published on Alzheimer’s disease prevention journal concluded that early prevention of dementia, targeting at-risk groups, is relatively inexpensive and can reduce subsequent costs related to the care and treatment of people with dementia.
“From an economic perspective, dementia represents a major challenge for economies around the world due to rising costs. Given that there is no cure in sight, prevention appears to be the most promising approach to reduce the costs of dementia. “Health care due to dementia. Approximately 40% of patients’ dementias are attributed to modifiable risk factors, and early studies have shown that multidomain interventions can be effective in preventing dementia,” they warn in their article. paper Alexander Braun and colleagues, from Austria.
The researchers wanted to know whether prevention for people at risk of dementia could be cost-effective, i.e. whether the financial expenditure on a certain action generated a positive impact. To do this, they compared data from seven studies, out of a total of more than 3,600 studies on the topic. Braun, from the Institute of Health Management at IMC Krems in Austria, and an author of the work, said the review shows that dementia prevention programs represent savings. On average each intervention cost 472 euros per person. Therefore, he says, the cost can be seen as an investment in health.
Collapsed health systems
“There are fragile health systems in low- and middle-income countries that have collapsed during the pandemic. If nothing is done in terms of prevention, healthcare systems are expected to be severely affected in the coming years due to the high incidence of dementia,” warns Natan Feter, from the Postgraduate Program in Epidemiology at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Brazil.
A systematic review carried out in 2022 found that the prevalence rate of dementia is higher in Latin American and Caribbean countries, compared to Europe and the United States. According to Feter, studies show that the prevalence of key risk factors for dementia is higher in low-income populations, because they have limited access to preventative measures and medical care.
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