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An international group of collaborating scientists that includes HSE Professor Vasily Vlasov has analyzed data from 195 countries on the spread of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia between 1990 and 2016. The results have been published in the journal The Lancet Neurology .
The study drew on official data on morbidity and mortality, as well as scientific papers containing more accurate information on the spread of the disease.
The results of the statistical analysis have shown that the number of people suffering from Alzheimer’s and other dementia increased from 20.2 million in 1990 to 43.8 million in 2016. Of these, 27 million were women and 16.8 million were men. Researchers have attributed the increase in the spread of the disease to both the aging and growth of the global population.
The number of deaths from dementia has increased by 148% over the same 26-year period. Dementia is now the fifth most common cause of death worldwide and the second most common — after coronary heart disease — among people aged 70 or older.
One of the study’s authors, HSE Department of Health Care Administration and Economy Professor Vasily Vlasov, has noted that, according to the data, more than 1 million Russians — most over 50 — were suffering from dementia in 2016.