TY - JOUR
T1 - The changing prevalence and incidence of dementia over time-current evidence
AU - Wu, Yu Tzu
AU - Beiser, Alexa S.
AU - Breteler, Monique M.B.
AU - Fratiglioni, Laura
AU - Helmer, Catherine
AU - Hendrie, Hugh C.
AU - Honda, Hiroyuki
AU - Ikram, M. Arfan
AU - Langa, Kenneth M.
AU - Lobo, Antonio
AU - Matthews, Fiona E.
AU - Ohara, Tomoyuki
AU - Pérès, Karine
AU - Qiu, Chengxuan
AU - Seshadri, Sudha
AU - Sjölund, Britt Marie
AU - Skoog, Ingmar
AU - Brayne, Carol
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature. All rights reserved.
PY - 2017/6/1
Y1 - 2017/6/1
N2 - Dementia is an increasing focus for policymakers, civil organizations and multidisciplinary researchers. The most recent descriptive epidemiological research into dementia is enabling investigation into how the prevalence and incidence are changing over time. To establish clear trends, such comparisons need to be founded on population-based studies that use similar diagnostic and research methods consistently over time. This narrative Review synthesizes the findings from 14 studies that investigated trends in dementia prevalence (nine studies) and incidence (five studies) from Sweden, Spain, the UK, the Netherlands, France, the USA, Japan and Nigeria. Besides the Japanese study, these studies indicate stable or declining prevalence and incidence of dementia, and some provide evidence of sex-specific changes. No single risk or protective factor has been identified that fully explains the observed trends, but major societal changes and improvements in living conditions, education and healthcare might have favourably influenced physical, mental and cognitive health throughout an individual's life course, and could be responsible for a reduced risk of dementia in later life. Analytical epidemiological approaches combined with translational neuroscientific research could provide a unique opportunity to explore the neuropathology that underlies changing occurrence of dementia in the general population.
AB - Dementia is an increasing focus for policymakers, civil organizations and multidisciplinary researchers. The most recent descriptive epidemiological research into dementia is enabling investigation into how the prevalence and incidence are changing over time. To establish clear trends, such comparisons need to be founded on population-based studies that use similar diagnostic and research methods consistently over time. This narrative Review synthesizes the findings from 14 studies that investigated trends in dementia prevalence (nine studies) and incidence (five studies) from Sweden, Spain, the UK, the Netherlands, France, the USA, Japan and Nigeria. Besides the Japanese study, these studies indicate stable or declining prevalence and incidence of dementia, and some provide evidence of sex-specific changes. No single risk or protective factor has been identified that fully explains the observed trends, but major societal changes and improvements in living conditions, education and healthcare might have favourably influenced physical, mental and cognitive health throughout an individual's life course, and could be responsible for a reduced risk of dementia in later life. Analytical epidemiological approaches combined with translational neuroscientific research could provide a unique opportunity to explore the neuropathology that underlies changing occurrence of dementia in the general population.
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U2 - 10.1038/nrneurol.2017.63
DO - 10.1038/nrneurol.2017.63
M3 - Review article
C2 - 28497805
AN - SCOPUS:85019986510
VL - 13
SP - 327
EP - 339
JO - Nature Clinical Practice Neurology
JF - Nature Clinical Practice Neurology
SN - 1759-4758
IS - 6
ER -