WHO: Dementia Is On The Rise Around The World
Dementia is a brain illness that affects memory, leaving sufferers unable to care for themselves. About 70 percent of cases are linked to Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's and dementia have become major health issues in well-off countries over the last few decades. Meanwhile in low- and middle-income countries, where 58% of sufferers live, there is not as much infrastructure in place to help care for dementia patients. The populations of those countries are also expected to become far more susceptible to dementia in the coming years, and this will lead to soaring costs and heavy demands on the healthcare system.
Most dementia care is provided by informal caregivers: spouses, adult children, family members and friends. More often than not, those caregivers are themselves prone to mental disorders like depression and anxiety, and may suffer economically as they are forced to cut back on work or stop altogether in order to care for a loved-one afflicted with dementia.
In Canada, dementia is expected to affect 1.1 million people in the next 25 years, according to the Alzheimer's Society of Canada. And many Canadians aren't getting treatment as early as they should: a recent survey conducted by the Alzheimer's Society found that 44 percent of dementia sufferers in this country lived for a year or more with their symptoms before seeing a doctor.
read more: http://www.cbc.ca/strombo/health/who-dementia-is-on-the-rise-around-the-world.html. Click here.
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