Epidemiology

The disease affects around 10.5 million people in Europe (1).

• NICE state (2):
  • a report published by the Alzheimer's Society found that in 2013 there were approximately 815,000 people living with dementia in the UK
    • if current trends continue, this number is expected to increase to 1,143,000 by 2025
      
      
  • in England, the National Dementia and Antipsychotic Prescribing Audit found that approximately 31,000 people were newly diagnosed with dementia in 2011
    • an increase of 8% between 2006 and 2011. Finally, in December 2017, there were 456,739 people on GP registers with a formal diagnosis of dementia, up from approximately 290,000 people in 2009/10, with the majority of this difference accounted for by an increase in diagnosis rates
      
      
  • Alzheimer's Society report found that in 2013 the total cost of dementia in the UK was estimated to be £26.3 billion
    • of this, approximately £4.3 billion consists of health care, and approximately £10.3 billion consists of social care. The remaining £11.6 billion accounts for estimated unpaid care contributions
      
      
• people with Alzheimer's disease as their cause of dementia - approximately 500,000
  
  
• the number of patients will increase to double in the next 30 years with the cost estimated to treble (3)
  
  
• people from all ethnic groups are affected - number of people with dementia from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) groups in the UK is expected to rise significantly as the BAME population ages. It is estimated that there are nearly 25,000 people living with dementia from BAME backgrounds in England and Wales. This number is expected to grow to nearly 50,000 by 2026 and over 172,000 by 2051 (7)
  
  
• prevalence is higher in women than in men partly due to their greater longevity (4)
  
  
• the subtype Alzheimer’s disease is commonly seen in women while in men vascular dementia and mixed dementias are more frequent (5)
  
  
• around 63.5% of late onset dementia patients live in private households and the rest live in care homes (4)

Dementia can affect a person at any age. But the prevalence increases with age (both young onset and late onset dementia) (3):

• 65–69 years - 1.3% of the people
• 70–74 years - 2.9% of the people
• 75–79 years - 5.9% of the people
• 80–84 years - 12.2% of the people
• 85–89 years - 20.3% of the people
• 90-94 years - 28.6% of the people
• over 90 - 32.5% of the people (5)
• approximately 26% of women and 21% of men over the age of 85 years are estimated to have some form of dementia;
  • about 60% of these are estimated to have Alzheimer's disease,
  • about 25% have vascular dementia
  • dementia with Lewy bodies accounts for 10-15% (6)

Young onset dementia is relatively rare and seen only in 2.2% of the people with dementia in UK.

• it is estimated that there are around 15,034 people with young onset dementia (the true figure may be much higher since the numbers are based on cases referred to the service) (4).
• in black and minority ethnic groups, around 6.1% of all people with dementia had the young onset from (5)

Reference:

• (1) Prince M et al. World Alzheimer Report 2015
• (2) NICE (June 2018). Dementia: assessment, management and support for people living with dementia and their carers
• (3) Department of health 2009. The use of antipsychotic medication for people with dementia: Time for action
• (4) National Collaborating center for mental health 2007: Dementia: A NICE-SCIE guideline on supporting people with dementia and their carers in health and social care
• (5) The Alzheimer’s Society 2007. Dementia UK: A report in to the prevalence and cost of dementia prepared by the Personal Social Services Research Unit (PSSRU) at the London school of economics and the institute of psychiatry at King’s college London, for the Alzheimer’s society
• (6) Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin (2003), 41 (1), 1-4
• (7) Prime Minister's challenge on dementia 2020 (Published February 2015)