Author: Robby Berman / Source: Big Think
- The incidence of dementia is rising at an alarming rate
- While it’s primarily diagnosed over age 50, it starts decades earlier
- Modifying behavior to avoid a handful of known risk factors can help reduce the chance of getting dementia
A multi-university study lead by the University of Melbourne and the University of Washington has found that the number of people living with dementia worldwide shot up from 20.
2 million in 1990 to 43.8 million in 2016. The researchers analyzed data from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016, publishing their results in The Lancet Neurology.When dementia begins
(Atthapon Raksthaput/Shutterstock)
The majority of diagnoses are in people over 50, with the number of cases doubling every five years beyond that age. The age range, however, seems more narrow than it really is, since it’s believed that dementia begins at least 20 to 30 years before the symptoms that lead to a diagnosis become obvious.
The report lists potential triggers during those early decades. “In our study,” says the report, “22.3 per cent (11.8 – 35.1 per cent) of the total global disability-adjusted life years lost due to dementia in 2016 could be attributed to the…
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