Dementia is ‘ticking time bomb’ says sufferer from Cardiff

She encouraged scientists to keep on pushing for the advancement of treatments delaying progression of dementia and try to improve quality of life for those living with the disease.

In 1991, it was predicted that 8% of pensioners would have dementia in 2011.

“The current meta-analysis emphasized the heterogeneity of modifiable risk factors of [Alzheimer’s disease] and the complexity of its etiology, and indicated that the effective interventions in diet, medications, biochemical exposures, psychological condition, pre-existing disease and lifestyle may be promising options for preventative strategies”.

A study of dementia cases in five Western European countries has found evidence that the numbers of people developing the condition may be stabilising. The health system is still poorly equipped to deal with them and the state of social care in the UK now means life for dementia sufferers is likely to get worse long before it gets better.

This could help prevent further cases of dementia in future, they added.

Experts at Cambridge University, who carried out a review of five large epidemiological studies, warned that much of the NHS and Department of Health policy on dementia was based on studies which are behind the times. It is possible that we’re witnessing these changes reflected in the reduced risk of developing dementia. In Spain, for example the prevalence of dementia has fallen with 43 percent in men over 65 between 1987 and 1996, joined by similar positive reports from Sweden and the Netherlands. The researchers pooled the data from each of the studies and graded the evidence according to its strength. The study in the UK, however, actually showed a drop in the numbers: there were 22% fewer people aged over 65 with dementia in 2011 than had been predicted in 1990.

Lead researcher Carol Brayne, from the Institute of Public Health at Cambridge University, said: “The suggested decrease in dementia occurrence coincides with improvements in protective factors, such as education and living conditions, for dementia and a general reduction in risk factors, such as vascular diseases, over recent decades”.

The nine risk factors included obesity, current smoking (in the Asian population), carotid artery narrowing, type 2 diabetes (in the Asian population), low educational attainment, high levels of homocysteine, depression, high blood pressure and frailty.

The researchers wanted to look at the factors associated with the development of Alzheimers disease in a bid to determine the degree to which these might be modified and so potentially reduce overall risk.

They were able to include data from 323 of these which together identified 93 different risk factors among a group of 5,000 people. In fact cases are stabilising.