Despite the overall increase in the number of people with dementia, due to the increase in population and life expectancy, the prevalence of this condition has decreased significantly from generation to generation. Currently, a person between 75 and 80 years old is only 15% likely to have the syndrome.
A team of researchers at the University of Queensland, Australia, analyzed data from more than 62,000 people over 70, born between 1890 and 1948, to determine if there were differences From generation to generation in the prevalence of dementia.
The study, which was on Monday in the magazine JAMA Network Openinvolved 21 069 people from the United States, 8 878 from England and 32 490 individuals from Europe, allowed to identify a gradual descent of the number of cases of dementia over the last decades.
Second Sabrina Lenzenresearcher at the University of Queensland and co-author of the study, it is likely that the Health improvements Cardiovascular, in education, living conditions and access to health care have contributed to these results.
“Thanks to evolution in medicine, we have seen improvements in cardiovascular health, better control of blood pressure and cholesterol, all of them risk factors of dementia, ”explains Lenzen at the university.
Participants were divided into 8 birth cohorts and 6 age groups. These 8 cohorts were grouped in 5 years of birth blocks, the oldest and the oldest included people born between 1890-1913 and the latest between 1944-1948. The 6 age groups were 71-75, 76-80, 81-85, 86-90, 91-95 and> 95.
“Our study allowed us to examine how the prevalence of dementia changes with age and between generationstaking into account the height when the inquiries were performed, ”said Lenzen.
The results show that people born in the latest cohort have less likely to suffer from dementia. In the case in the United States, for example, 25.1% of people born between 1890 and 1913 suffer from dementia compared to 15.5% of people born between 1939 and 1943.
“We discovered a statistically significant decline in the most recent birth cohorts. There were many improvements in education, especially in the case of womencompared to the generation of baby boomers, ”says Lenzen.
The study also confirms the greater number of cases of the disease at global level – What is inevitable, due to largest number of inhabitants on Earth and an average increasingly high life expectancy.
“It is often seeing statistics that show that the prevalence rates of dementia are increasing. Our study does not refute it,” explains Lenzen.
“However, that It does not define that the syndrome depends only on the advanced age of the person. There is this correlation between age and dementia, but I think it is really important to understand that It’s not just age that is provoking these episodes, ”says Lenzen.
“Some of the risk factors have been improving, but we still have high obesity rates and factors such as air pollutionwhich also influence the development of dementia, ”concludes the researcher.
