Improved health and mortality are not likely to guard against the risk of developing dementia, according to a recent study by Professor Carol Brayne from the University of Cambridge and Dr Fiona Matthews of the MRC Biostatistics Unit in Cambridge.
Improved health and mortality are not likely to guard against the risk of developing dementia, according to a recent study by Professor Carol Brayne from the University of Cambridge and Dr Fiona Matthews of the MRC Biostatistics Unit in Cambridge.
The results from the Medical Research Council Cognitive Function and Ageing Study (MRC CFAS) were published in the scientific journal Public Library of Science Medicine today.
The researchers interviewed 13,004 individuals aged 65 years and above using identical methodology from five diverse locations across England and Wales. This is the first study to measure any variation of the incidence of dementia across five sites within England and Wales, producing overall estimates by age and sex. The researchers found no convincing evidence of variation.
Dementia is a change in mental function sufficiently severe to interfere with day-to-day living and affects around 550,000 people in the UK. The incidence of dementia is known to vary between nations, but clear variation has not been shown in western countries. This is the first study of its kind within a single country.
Incidence rates for dementia rise with age both in men and women. In individuals aged 75-79 years, 1 in 70 people will develop dementia in any given year. In those aged 85 years and above, where the population is set to increase the most over the next decade, this increases to 1 in 15. The study estimates that approximately 163,000 new cases of dementia occur in England and Wales each year.
“One quarter of people aged 85 and over suffer from dementia. This new research will help those planning services for people with dementia to estimate requirements now and in the future. However, more research is needed to find out if the incidence of dementia in the UK is rising or falling,” said Dr Matthews.
“Unlike with many chronic diseases, the rates of new development of dementia across England and Wales do not seem to be influenced by factors such as health and overall mortality. This could be because the moderate lifestyle differences and variation in mortality across England and Wales are not sufficiently great to influence the incidence of dementia, whereas in many parts of the world the differences in incidence of dementia between countries are sufficiently large to be easily detectable,” commented Professor Brayne.
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