The rate of seniors developing dementia decreased by nearly a quarter over the last 20 years in England and Wales, although the percentage of nursing home residents with dementia increased, according to a recently published study.
Researchers from the Cambridge Institute of Public Health, the University of East Anglia School of Nursing and the Newcastle University Institute of Health and Society compared results from two surveys of people 65 and older. The first study showed 664,000 participants with dementia in 1991. Based on population aging alone, 884,000 seniors could be expected to have dementia in 2011, the researchers calculated.
However, the second survey, conducted between 2008 and 2011, showed only 670,000 participants with dementia.
Although this news suggests improved education, prevention and treatment strategies are paying off, the burden on long-term care providers to care for those with dementia has increased in the last two decades. Fewer people overall are going into care settings, but the prevalence of dementia within these facilities increased from 56% to 70% during the study period, the researchers found.
Some Alzheimer’s researchers in the United States have embraced these results, saying they are likely applicable to the U.S. population and show recent predictions about dementia rates may be too dire, The New York Times reported. However, other researchers expressed reservations, citing methodological concerns with the British study.
The complete results were published Tuesday in The Lancet, and can be accessed by clicking here. The report was published just weeks after the U.K. health secretary and Alzheimer’s Foundation said dementia might be cured by 2020.
