About 4% of US adults age 65 and older have a diagnosis of dementia, Reuters study finds
Written by Christy Santhosh
(Reuters) – About 4% of American adults age 65 and older say they have been diagnosed with dementia, a rate that rose to 13% among those at least 85 years old, according to a national survey released on Thursday.
The report released by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was based on the 2022 National Health Interview Survey, a nationally representative sample of American adults aged 18 and older. The 2019 survey added an option to report dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, to its questions about medical conditions diagnosed by a doctor.
The CDC said 1.7% of adults aged 65 to 74 reported having dementia, a rate that is increasing with age. For those aged 75 to 84, the reported dementia rate was 5.7%.
The organization conducted in-person or telephone interviews with 8,757 people aged 65 and over who were asked whether they had been diagnosed with some form of dementia.
Ellen Kramarow, the report’s lead author, said rates of dementia diagnoses are roughly the same from 2019 to 2022, adding that they “don’t see this as a step that will have significant changes from year to year.”
Alzheimer’s is the leading cause of dementia, which involves loss of memory, language, problem-solving and other cognitive skills severe enough to interfere with daily life, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.
The report coincides with the arrival of new treatments designed to slow the progression of the brain-destroying disease, such as Biogen (NASDAQ: ) and Eisai’s Leqembi, which won US approval last July. Eli Lilly’s (NYSE: ) similar treatment, donanemab, was unanimously approved by an advisory panel at the US Food and Drug Administration on Monday and is expected to be widely approved.
A CDC report showed that dementia was lowest among people with a college degree and highest among people with less than a high school education.
Several studies have suggested that people with higher levels of education have greater cognitive resources that can temporarily delay the symptoms of dementia.
The overall estimates are similar to other national surveys, such as the 2021 Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey, which estimates that about 3% of Medicare beneficiaries who do not live in nursing homes or long-term care facilities have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia.
