The content from this webpage is an amplification of Alzheimer’s Disease International recommendations.

World Alzheimer Month 2024: Time To Act on Dementia

September is World Alzheimer’s Month and this year’s campaign by Alzheimer’s Disease International focuses on Attitudes Towards Dementia.

September is World Alzheimer’s Month and this year’s campaign by Alzheimer Disease International focuses on Attitudes Towards Dementia. After last year’s successful campaign on risk reduction and modifiable risk factors for dementia¹, Nutricia is proudly collaborating with ADI once again to provide nutritional solutions and resources to support individuals at risk of developing dementia.

The focus of this year’s World Alzheimer’s Month campaign, ‘Attitudes to dementia’, centres on understanding and addressing the current perceptions and attitudes towards dementia, aiming to address the stigma and misinformation around the condition to ultimately build a more dementia friendly society.

In Nutricia we are proud to join ADI’s awareness raising campaign and help address stigma surrounding Alzheimer’s Disease and dementia and promote risk reduction. As highlighted during last year’s campaign, switching towards a healthy lifestyle can significantly impact dementia risk reduction. With diet being one of the pillars of modifiable risk factors, it is within Nutricia values to help bring health through food to as many people as possible.

Learn more about how medical nutrition can support your brain health:

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To help ADI in the dementia awareness journey, we encourage you to read some insightful facts about the condition:

There are over 55 million people around the world living with dementia.
The number of people living with dementia is predicted to rise sharply to 139 million by 2050.
Dementia is the 7th leading cause of death globally and in an increasing number of countries, the leading cause of death.
50% of the costs for dementia are related to informal care
The annual global number of informal care hours provided to people with dementia living at home was about 133 billion hours in 2021, the equivalent of more than 67 million full-time workers
Almost 80% of the general public are concerned about developing dementia and 1 in 4 people think that there is nothing we can do to prevent dementia
35% of carers across the world said that they have hidden the diagnosis of dementia of a family member
2 in 3 people still think that dementia is caused by normal aging.
46% of people living with dementia and carers identified fear of diagnosis and stigma as barriers to diagnosis.
1 in 4 of the public thinks that there is nothing that can be done to prevent dementia, yet evidence suggests that 40% of dementia could be delayed or prevented by modifiable risk factors. This World Alzheimer’s Month we are raising awareness of dementia and challenging misconceptions around the condition.
Low levels of awareness, alongside stigma and discrimination can prevent or delay concerned individuals speaking to their health care practitioners about dementia. An accurate diagnosis of Alzheimer’s or dementia can help unlock treatment, care and support options and assistance to enable those living with a diagnosis to live independently for as long as possible.

World Alzheimer’s Report 2024

Every year for World Alzheimer Month, ADI releases their annual report including facts & figures about Alzheimer’s Disease and dementia. This time the report is formed by survey responses from across the globe from people living with dementia, carers, healthcare practitioners and the general public.

In 2019, ADI commissioned a global survey on attitudes towards dementia conducted by the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), seeking to understand what the prevailing beliefs, knowledge, and attitudes about the condition at that specific point in time were. Five years later, ADI and LSE have conducted a follow-up survey, with more than 40,000 responses, to see whether attitudes to dementia have changed since. In addition to the survey, ADI commissioned essays to include in the report with reflections and viewpoints on the rich topic of attitudes to dementia.

Here are some key findings from the survey²:

80% of the general public think dementia is a normal part of ageing, a dramatic increase compared to 66% in 2019.
Over 58% of the general public believe dementia is caused by an unhealthy lifestyle. This number increased since 2019 across high-income countries (HICs) and upper-middle income countries (UMICs) but decreased dramatically in lower-/lower-middle income countries (LMICs).
Over a quarter of people globally believe there is nothing we can do to prevent dementia, with an increase from 2019 to 37% in LMICs.
88% of people living with dementia indicate experiencing discrimination, up from 83% in 2019.
36% of the general public in LMICs are willing to keep their dementia a secret, a significant increase from 19% in 2019.

It is clear that both people living with dementia and carers are experiencing high levels of discrimination and/or fear of discrimination, which is impacting severely on their quality of life.

Read the full 2024 report:

Read report

The report also highlights the importance of awareness-raising campaigns. If we can change the way society interacts with people living with dementia, we can foster greater understanding and inclusion, which over time can reduce stigma, and allow for early detection and intervention. Go back to the 2023 campaign to learn more about the modifiable risk factors that can be acted upon in the earlier stages of cognitive decline and dementia.

Source: Livingston et al. A, et al. Dementia prevention,
intervention, and care: 2020 report of the Lancet Commission

alzint.org

Visit Alzheimer’s Disease International website to learn more about best practices in addressing stigma and dementia and common misconceptions around the condition:

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Long, S, et al. World Alzheimer Report 2023: Reducing dementia risk: never too early, never too late. Alzheimer’s Disease International. 2023.
Alzheimer’s Disease International. 2024. World Alzheimer Report 2024: Global changes in attitudes to dementia. London, England: Alzheimer’s Disease International.

Early Alzheimer’s Disease

Supplying the brain with certain key nutrients could support healthy memory performance in patients with early Alzheimer’s Disease.

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Early Alzheimer’s Disease product

There are health challenges where medical nutrition can have an important role to play to support the patients with their specific nutritional needs. Souvenaid is a Food for Special Medical Purposes for the dietary management of early Alzheimer’s disease, including Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), and must be used under medical supervision.

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The content from this webpage is an amplification of Alzheimer’s Disease International recommendations.