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| Professor Colin Pritchard |
Professor Colin Pritchard's latest research published in
journal Public Health has found that the sharp rise of dementia and
other neurological deaths in people under 74 cannot be put down to the fact
that we are living longer.
The rise is because a higher proportion of old
people are being affected by such conditions -- and what is really alarming, it
is starting earlier and affecting people under 55 years.
Of the 10 biggest Western countries the USA had the
worst increase in all neurological deaths, men up 66% and women 92% between
1979-2010. The UK
was 4th highest, men up 32% and women 48%. In terms of numbers of deaths, in
the UK , it was 4,500 and now
6,500, in the USA
it was 14,500 now more than 28,500 deaths.
Professor Pritchard of Bournemouth University
Tessa Gutteridge, Director Young Dementia UK says that our
society needs to learn that dementia is increasingly affecting people from an
earlier age: "The lives of an increasing number of families struggling
with working-age dementia are made so much more challenging by services which
fail to keep pace with their needs and a society which believes dementia to be
an illness of old age."
Bournemouth University researchers, Professor Colin
Pritchard and Dr Andrew Mayers, along with the University of Southampton's
Professor David Baldwin show that there are rises in total neurological deaths,
including the dementias, which are starting earlier, impacting upon patients,
their families and health and social care services, exemplified by an 85%
increase in UK Motor Neurone Disease deaths.
The research highlights that there is an alarming 'hidden
epidemic' of rises in neurological deaths between 1979-2010 of adults (under
74) in Western countries, especially the UK .
Total neurological deaths in both men and women rose
significantly in 16 of the countries covered by the research, which is in sharp
contrast to the major reductions in deaths from all other causes.
Over the period the UK has the third biggest
neurological increase, up 32% in men and 48% in women, whilst women's
neurological deaths rose faster than men's in most countries.
Professor Pritchard said, "These rises in neurological
deaths, with the earlier onset of the dementias, are devastating for families
and pose a considerable public health problem. It is NOT that we have more old
people but rather more old people have more brain disease than ever before,
including Alzheimer's. For example there are two new British charities, The
Young Parkinson's Society and Young Dementia UK , which are a grass-roots
response to these rises. The need for such charities would have been
inconceivable a little more than 30 years ago."
When asked what he thought caused the increases he replied,
"This has to be speculative but it cannot be genetic because the period is
too short. Whilst there will be some influence of more elderly people, it does
not account for the earlier onset; the differences between countries nor the
fact that more women have been affected, as their lives have changed more than
men's over the period, all indicates multiple environmental factors.
Considering the changes over the last 30 years -- the explosion in electronic
devices, rises in background non-ionising radiation- PC's, micro waves, TV's,
mobile phones; road and air transport up four-fold increasing background
petro-chemical pollution; chemical additives to food etc. There is no one
factor rather the likely interaction between all these environmental triggers,
reflecting changes in other conditions. For example, whilst cancer deaths are
down substantially, cancer incidence continues to rise; levels of asthma are
un-precedented; the fall in male sperm counts -- the rise of auto-immune
diseases -- all point to life-style and environmental influences. These
`statistics' are about real people and families, and we need to recognise that
there is an `epidemic' that clearly is influenced by environmental and societal
changes."
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