Did you know?

About dementia and Alzheimer’s disease

Dementia – an umbrella term

It is syndrome associated with an ongoing decline of brain functions. It has many different types, with symptoms of memory loss, difficulty in usual activities, language difficulties and change is personality.

Dementia can affect anyone – regardless of sex, ethnicity, social or economic affiliation. Although there are some key risk factors (e.g. lack of physical activity, smoking, excessive alcohol consumption) and some conditions that helps its emergence (like high blood pressure, diabetes, former injuries to the head or hearing impairment) their existance or absence does not define whether the disease will develop or not. Alzheimer’s disease is its most common form, adding up to 60-70% of all patients suffering from dementia.

Dementia in Numbers

Age is a key risk factor that needs to be highlighted. Dementia usually emerges in old age and the higher the individual’s age is, the higher the probability of affection to dementia.

is affected by dementia

~5% of people aged 65+

if we consider people over 80 years of age

This number is around 20%

According to the latest estimations, there are currently

more than 50 million people

suffering from one of the forms of dementia

This number in 2005

was around 24 million

And will be around

152 million

by 2050

There is a new case of dementia worldwide

in every 3 seconds

In Hungary currently there are

about 200 thousand people

affected directly

This rapid growth is due to several factors. First, in developed countries life expectancy at birth has risen (and still continues to rise), so people can live longer. Above this, you can hear about the so-called aging society – this means that beside we are living longer, the ratio of elder people in our society grows.

According to current scientific knowledge there is no cure for dementia, however its progress can be slowed down significantly by applying appropriate treatment. The starting point of such treatment is always the recognition of the disease at the earliest possible time.

Dementia Treatments

In the past peolpe suffering from dementia were thought to lose their individuality and personality with time. It was a common assumption that due to brain damages they will slowly lose their humanity – therefore people suffering from dementia were often believed they cannot act on their own right. Nowadays during treatments of dementia doctors more and more take into consideration the personal history, preferences and needs wich significantly slows down the progress of the disease. Although Alzheimer’s disease (along with most types of dementia) is incurable, the difficulties like restlessness and depression that come along with it can be treated. Moreover, especially in case of early recognized dementia, it is possible to improve patients’ memory with proper medication.

Unfortunately though, dementia is one of the illnesses that are recognized only in latter stages even nowadays.

According to a research in 2019, involving almost 70 000 respondents from 155 countries, the following statements can be made:

2 in 3 people

think that dementia is caused by normal ageing

1 in 4 people

think that there is nothing we can do to prevent dementia

95% of the general public

thinks that they could develop dementia at some point in their life

Just under

40%

of the general public thinks that there are adequate services in place for people living in dementia

Above this, the research included questions about the attitudes of healthcare practitioners:

62% of healthcare practitioners

still think that dementia is part of normal ageing

Around

40%

of the public thinks that healthcare practitioners ignore people with dementia

Although

more than 50%

of dementia carers expressed positive sentiments about their role

More than 50%

of them stated that their health suffered as a result of caring

Over 60%

of dementia carers said their social life suffered as a result of caring responsibilities

Alzheimer
Source

Alzheimer’s Disease International World Alzheimer Report 2019

How can ForeStream help?

It helps recognizing the disease earlier

making it possible to slow down the progress of dementia with proper treatment.

It helps doctors

to track the eficiency of the prescribed treatment programs, therefore making it easier to customize them.

It helps caregivers

to fill their schedule more efficiently and focus more on the patients most in need.

YOU CAN READ ABOUT HOW FORESTREAM WORKS MORE IN DETAIL HERE.

Get in touch with us!

Get in touch with us!

info@forestream.hu+36 30 876 4490

1091 Budapest, Üllői út 55.

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