Affiliations 

  • 1 Centre for Research on Ageing,Health & Wellbeing,ANU College of Health and Medicine,Australian National University,Canberra,Australia
  • 2 Centre for Research in Ageing and Cognitive Health (REACH),University of Exeter,Exeter,UK
  • 3 Academic Unit for Psychiatry of Old Age,Department of Psychiatry,The University of Melbourne & North Western Mental Health,Melbourne Health,Melbourne,Australia
  • 4 Department of Neurology,Layton Aging and Alzheimer's Disease Center,Oregon Health & Science University,Portland,OR,USA
  • 5 School of Medicine,University of California San Francisco,USA
  • 6 Centre of Community Rehabilitation and Aging,Universiti Kebangsaan,Selangor,Malaysia
  • 7 Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing,School of Psychiatry,University of New South Wales,Sydney,New South Wales,Australia
  • 8 Alzheimer's Disease International,London,UK
Int Psychogeriatr, 2017 11;29(11):1757-1760.
PMID: 28899450 DOI: 10.1017/S1041610217001685

Abstract

Dementia is a neurodegenerative disorder with global impact, with the largest proportion of cases occurring in low- and middle-income countries. It is estimated that there are 46.8 million cases globally with approximately 10 million new cases each year or a new case occurring every 3 sec (Prince et al., 2015). For comparison there are 36.7 million HIV cases with an estimated 2 million new cases each year (WHO, 2017). The rise in dementia prevalence is largely due to population ageing, with the oldest being at highest risk. To date there are no diseases modifying medications for Alzheimer's disease or the other causes of dementia. Academics and research groups are increasingly focused on prevention or delay of dementia (Brayne and Miller, 2017) and a number of organizations now prioritize dementia, indicating a strong and coherent international effort to address this problem. Examples include the World Health Organisation (WHO), which has established a Global Dementia Observatory; the World Dementia Council; the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD); the U.S. National Alzheimer's Project Act (NAPA); and the Global Council on Brain Health.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.