Do you know anyone living with dementia? Chances are you probably do. In fact, it’s so common that it has been called an epidemic, and numbers will only increase.
According to the World Health Organization, around 50 million people are living with dementia, and it’s only going to increase in the coming decades. This is such a common condition that someone is diagnosed every four seconds around the world!
In the US, around five million people live with dementia. Among patients, most dementia cases are because of Alzheimer’s disease, followed by vascular dementia. As people live longer dementia cases will increase, and a study predicts that around 13 million Americans will be diagnosed with dementia by 2060.
Nevertheless, age-related dementia risk has decreased in the past years. This means that people are making wiser health choices, causing a later dementia onset. This trend could also be due to higher education levels, better access to health services, and preventive measures to control blood pressure and other cardiovascular issues. All of this contributes to effectively diminishing the possibility of vascular dementia.
As you probably know if you’ve been personally affected, dementia care is expensive. It’s such a common condition that, if the money spent were a business, it would surpass the biggest multinational companies by a lot! In the end, there are lots of resources dedicated to researching and trying to fix dementia: from pharmaceutical companies to universities and care centers. If you want to know more, check out today’s infographic!
