Dementia is a progressive disease that associates with memory impairment and cognitive deficit. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common type of dementia. In AD, brain is damaged by the presence of beta-amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles.
There are an approximately 820,000 people (1.3% of population) with dementia in UK. Among them, population data indicate that 520,000 people have AD with 423,000 people live in England and 26,000 people live in Wales [1]. Incidence of AD among people aged 65-68 years is estimated to be 7.4 per 1000 person-years and this incidence escalate to 84.9 per 1000 person-years at people over 85 years old [1]. Number of people with dementia is estimated to increase annually, probably due to the increase of aging population. The predicted new cases of dementia per year is 180,000 and 111,600 cases of them are for AD in England and Wales [1]. …show more content…
The most significant risk factors for AD is increasing age. The prevalence of AD is reported doubling every 5 years for people 65 years old and above. Woman is more prone to AD than men but this is probably because man has shorter life span. Other than that, risk factors of AD also include genetic causes, family history of AD, medical history, previous head trauma and diet and malnutrition.