Decline in dementia rate offers “cautious hope”

“The number of Americans with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias will grow each year as the size and proportion of the U.S. population age 65 and older continue to increase. The number will escalate rapidly in coming years as the baby boom generation ages.” 2015 Alzheimer’s disease Facts and Figures Despite these alarming projections, a report from a recent issue of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) offered a few words of encouragement. Researchers from the longstanding Framingham study found that the rate of dementia has declined over the course of three decades. Framingham researchers had been studying more than 5,000 men and women since 1975. The participants had physical exams, including tests for dementia every five years. The researchers determined that the five-year rate of dementia was 3.6% between 1982 and 1986 2.8% between 1991 and 1996, 2.2% between 1998 and 2003, and 2.0% between 2009 and 2013. Moreover, the average age when dementia was diagnosed increased from 80 to 85 over the 30 years. Do these results fly in the face of the Alzheimer’s Association’s predictions? Perhaps somewhat, according to Dr. David S. Jones, the A. Bernard Ackerman Professor of the Culture of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. In the same issue of NEJM, Dr. Jones and Dr. Jeremy A. Greene of Johns Hopkins Medical School note that a 2005 report based on data from the National Long-Term Care Surveys showed that severe cognitive impairment among Medicare recipients ...
Source: New Harvard Health Information - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Alzheimer's Disease Behavioral Health Brain and cognitive health Caregiving Healthy Aging Memory Mental Health Prevention cognitive decline dementia Source Type: news