According to the World Health Organization, dementia is a Public Health priority [1].
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has estimated the prevalence of dementia and found that Italy is in second place in the world in 2021 and will be second only to Japan also in 2050 [2].
As the population ages, the number of people with dementia in OECD countries is projected to rise from an estimated 19 million today to 40.9 million by 2050. Until a cure for dementia is found, this will have major human and financial implications.
Improving the lives of people with dementia is both a moral necessity and an economic imperative. Too many people with dementia are undiagnosed, and for those who are, a dementia diagnosis can be devastating. Stigma around dementia remains too common, and many people are left to manage their condition without adequate access to the health and social care services that could help them. The cost to individuals and their families is enormous: 40-75% of the total cost of dementia care.
In recent years, political attention to dementia has grown. Yet despite the efforts, we are still failing too many people with dementia. Significant gaps in access and quality of services remain. Nearly 70% of nursing home residents have some form of cognitive impairment, yet staff are often not trained to adequately treat the symptoms of advanced dementia, and there remains significant inappropriate use of medications for behavioral and psychotic symptoms of dementia. Data and measurements for dementia are weak, undermining efforts to monitor progress. For example, fewer than 40% of countries are able to estimate their national diagnosis rate.
There are also high costs to health and care systems due to poor quality care. Consider, for example, the large number of hospital admissions of patients with dementia that could be avoided through better investment in prevention and care coordination. There is growing evidence that prevention to address risk factors for several chronic conditions is also useful for preventing dementia. However, OECD health systems only devote less than 3% of health spending to prevention.
