Dementia at Younger Ages More Prevalent Than Previously Estimated, Meta-Analysis Suggests

The development of dementia in people between the ages of 30 and 64 years (known as young-onset dementia) is more common than previously estimated, according to areport published Monday inJAMA Neurology. The new report estimates young-onset dementia affects some 3.9 million people globally.“Although this is higher than previously thought, it is probably an underestimation owing to lack of high-quality data,” wrote lead author Stevie Hendriks, M.Sc., of Maastricht University in the Netherlands and colleagues. Specifically, “more data are needed from low-income countries as well a s studies that include younger age ranges,” they wrote.Hendriks and colleagues searched the literature for population-based studies on the prevalence of young-onset dementia published between January 1, 1990, and March 31, 2020. A total of 74 studies with more than 2.7 million patients were included in an analysis that looked at the prevalence of dementia in adults grouped by five-year age blocks beginning at age 30 through age 64. (The authors noted that most of the studies included in the analysis were conducted in Europe and in older groups in Asia, North America, and Oceania.) Specific diagnoses analyzed included Alzheimer ’s disease, frontotemporal dementia, and vascular dementia.They found an overall global age-standardized prevalence of 119.0 per 100,000 population in the age range of 30 to 64 years, corresponding to 3.9 million people aged 30 to 64 years living with young-onset demen...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: Alzheimer's disease dementia frontotemporal dementia JAMA Neurology meta-analysis prevalence vascular dementia young-onset dementia Source Type: research