Journal Explores Dementia-Related Trends in High- and Middle-Income Countries

Data from nations around the world can be used to develop strategies for dementia prevention, treatment, and care, according to “Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Dementia and Related Population Health Trends,” a new supplemental issue of The Journals of Gerontology, Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences.

Alzheimer’s disease and Alzheimer’s-disease-related dementias are a set of conditions involving impaired memory and other cognitive processes that interfere with daily functioning. Worldwide, significant increases in the number of older adults living with dementia are anticipated in the coming decades — from 55.2 million in 2019 to 78 million in 2030 and 139 million in 2050 — unless effective interventions or treatments that forestall the onset of dementia are developed and widely adopted. The prevalence of dementia is expected to increase more rapidly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) than in high-income countries in the coming decades

“The papers in this current supplemental issue grow our understanding of dementia and dementia care trends in two complementary ways: expanding our understanding of population trends in cognitive impairment and dementia from several high-income countries, and exploring trends and projections in care and related costs for older adults with dementia across high-income and middle-income countries,” wrote guest editors Neil K. Mehta, PhD, Lindsay C. Kobayashi, PhD, Joshua R. Ehrlich, MD, MPH, and Vicki A. Freedman, PhD, in their opening article.

The issue’s contents are an outgrowth of the May 2023 annual meeting of the Michigan Center on the Demography of Aging’s (MiCDA) TRENDS network. TRENDS is a network of researchers working to accelerate scientific understanding of population-level changes over time in late-life disability, death, and health. The May 2023 meeting focused on updating our understanding of dementia and dementia care trends both in the United States and internationally.

Taken together, the six articles and two editorials in this issue underscore four cross-cutting themes and directions for future research:

• Memory impairment and dementia are becoming less prevalent in the U.S., particularly for adults in their mid-70s or older; but declines in memory impairment appear even larger in England and Europe.
• In the U.S., there are racial inequities not only in dementia prevalence but in care demands on family members and in the use of caregiver services such as respite care.
• Models to project dementia prevalence, dementia care, and dementia costs are challenging to estimate and need more development so that sensitivity to assumptions can be assessed.
• There are new opportunities and challenges for studying dementia and dementia trends in LMICs.

This supplemental issue was supported by the Michigan Center on the Demography of Aging at the University of Michigan, with funding from the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health (P30AG012846).

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The Journals of Gerontology, Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences is a peer-reviewed publication of the Gerontological Society of America (GSA), the nation's oldest and largest interdisciplinary organization devoted to research, education, and practice in the field of aging. The principal mission of the Society — and its 6,000+ members — is to advance the study of aging and disseminate information among scientists, decision makers, and the general public. GSA’s structure includes a nonpartisan public policy institute, the National Academy on an Aging Society, and GSA is also home to the National Center to Reframe Aging and the National Coordinating Center for the Resource Centers for Minority Aging Research.