{"id":2821002,"date":"2022-10-27T09:32:58","date_gmt":"2022-10-27T13:32:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/?p=2821002"},"modified":"2022-10-27T09:32:58","modified_gmt":"2022-10-27T13:32:58","slug":"dementia-older-adults-united-states-2821002","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/dementia-older-adults-united-states-2821002\/","title":{"rendered":"1 in 10 older adults in the US has dementia"},"content":{"rendered":"
Nearly one in 10 Americans over 65 has dementia, according to the first nationally representative study of cognitive impairment in more than 20 years.<\/p>\n
The study also finds that another 22% have mild cognitive impairment. People with dementia and mild cognitive impairment are more likely to be older, have lower levels of education, and to be Black or Hispanic. Men and women have similar rates<\/a> of dementia and mild cognitive impairment.<\/p>\n Although dementia and mild cognitive impairment are known to be common in the United States, accurate, up-to-date measures of their national prevalence were scarce.<\/p>\n “Because the HCAP study is part of the nationally representative and long-running Health and Retirement Study, these data not only show the burden of dementia now, but will be used in the future to track the trends in dementia burden in the decades ahead,” says study coauthor Kenneth Langa, professor in the University of Michigan Medical School, and a research professor in the Institute for Social Research, and Veterans Affairs Ann Arbor Healthcare System.<\/p>\n “Following those trends will be especially important given the likely impact of COVID<\/a> and other recent population health changes on the risk for dementia in the coming decades.”<\/p>\n The study appears in the journal JAMA Neurology<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n Researchers based the study on data on 3,500 individuals in the Harmonized Cognitive Assessment Protocol (HCAP) Project, part of the University of Michigan’s nationally representative Health and Retirement Study (HRS). Between 2016 and 2017, each participant completed a comprehensive set of neuropsychological tests and in-depth interviews, which were used to develop an algorithm for diagnosing dementia or mild cognitive impairment.<\/p>\n Rates of dementia and mild cognitive impairment rose sharply with age: 3% of people between 65 and 69 had dementia, rising to 35% for people aged 90 and over.<\/p>\n “Such data are critical for understanding the causes, costs, and consequences of dementia and mild cognitive impairment in the United States, and for informing policies aimed at reducing their impact on patients, families, and public programs,” says lead author Jennifer J. Manly, a professor of neuropsychology in neurology at Columbia University.<\/p>\n “With increasing longevity and the aging of the Baby Boom generation, cognitive impairment is projected to increase significantly over the next few decades, affecting individuals, families, and programs that provide care and services for people with dementia.”<\/p>\n The economic impact of dementia, including unpaid family caregiving, is estimated to cost $257 billion per year in the United States and $800 billion worldwide.<\/p>\n Unlike previous large studies of dementia in the United States, participants in the new study are representative of older adults, and the researchers could examine differences in the national prevalence of dementia and mild cognitive impairment by age, race and ethnicity, gender, and education.<\/p>\nIncrease in longevity, increase in dementia<\/h3>\n
Disparities<\/h3>\n