Worldwide dementia cases and cost on the rise

In a report released Tuesday to mark World Alzheimer’s Day, European researchers estimate about 35 million people have dementia worldwide – but that figure is likely to double to nearly 66 million in 2030 and 115 million in 2050.
The report by Alzheimer's Disease International also outlines the global cost of the illness, saying it will likely exceed $604 billion this year, or 1 percent of the world's gross domestic product.

As people live longer, particularly in developed countries, they become more susceptible to developing dementia.

“We also have a shift in developing countries where people live much longer than ever before,” says Professor Anders Wimo, one of the authors of the report and a professor at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm.

“If they increase the mean survival by five years, that’s going to have a enormous […] effect on the number of people with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias,” Wimo told Vatican Radio.

“In [low-income countries] most of the caregivers are not spouses as it is in many Western countries. It’s mainly daughters, sons, daughters-in-law and so on; so it has an economic impact due to losses in production as well.”