Dementia prevalence is declining among older Americans, study finds

In 2021, about 6.2 million U.S. adults aged 65 or older lived with dementia. Because age is the strongest risk factor for dementia, it has been predicted that increasing life expectancies will substantially increase the prevalence of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias from about 50 million to 150 million worldwide by 2050.

The prevalence of dementia in the U.S. is declining among people over age 65, dropping 3.7 percentage points from 2000 to 2016, according to a new RAND Corporation study. The findings are published in the latest edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The age-adjusted prevalence of dementia declined from 12.2% of people over age 65 in 2000 to 8.5% of people over age 65 in 2016, a nearly one-third drop from the 2000 level. The prevalence of dementia decreased over the entire period, but the rate of decline was more rapid between 2000 and 2004.

Differences in the prevalence of dementia between Black men and white men narrowed, with the prevalence of dementia dropping by 7.3 percentage points among Black men as compared to 2.7 percentage points among white men.

The reasons for the decline in the prevalence of dementia are not certain, but this trend is good news for older Americans and the systems that support them, said the researchers. This decline may help reduce the expected strain on families, nursing homes and other support systems as the American population ages concluded the researchers.

Reference:

Dementia prevalence is declining among older Americans, study finds; RAND CORPORATION JOURNAL Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2212205119.