Epidemiology: Alzheimer's Disease – Differential aging between genders will dramatically impact prevalent cases

Report Summary

In 2021, approximately 8.3 million adults with Alzheimer’s disease will be living in the seven major markets (the US, Japan, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK). A substantial proportion of these elderly adults will live in the US and Japan, where the prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease is highest.

Features and benefits

• Gain insight into market potential, including a robust 10-year epidemiology forecast of Alzheimer’s disease prevalent cases.
• Understand the key epidemiologic risk factors associated with Alzheimer’s disease.

Highlights

Because of the recent changes in ICD coding to eliminate confusion created by the overlap of the previous categories, earlier estimates are likely to have underestimated the prevalence of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

Alzheimer’s disease will continue to affect a large number of people in all of the major markets, with more than 8 million prevalent cases in the seven major markets in 2021.

In Japan, women are more likely to have Alzheimer’s disease than men; however, this may be the result of differential survival rates between genders with increasing age, as this effect has not been observed in other markets.

Your key questions answered

• What are the most robust sources for Alzheimer’s disease prevalence data?
• How will the patient population change over the next decade in the seven major markets?
• What are the major risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease that drive the trends in prevalent cases and how are they changing?

Table of Contents

OVERVIEW
Catalyst
Summary

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Disease background
Forecasted results

DISEASE DEFINITION AND DIAGNOSTIC CRITERIA
Disease definition for Alzheimer’s disease
Common diagnostic criteria for Alzheimer’s disease

GLOBAL VARIATION AND HISTORICAL TRENDS
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of dementia in Japan
Different methods have been used to assess disease prevalence in Spain

DRIVERS OF ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE EPIDEMIOLOGY
Risk of Alzheimer’s disease increases with age
Chronic exposure to dietary aluminum increases risk
Higher education levels make early diagnosis difficult
Gender is a risk factor in Japanese patients, but this is inconclusive in other populations
Metabolic syndrome may actually decrease risk of Alzheimer’s disease
In the US, African-Americans and Hispanics are up to twice as likely to have Alzheimer’s disease compared to Caucasians
Seizures may be a co-morbidity or indicative of early onset of the disease
Depression increases risk of Alzheimer’s disease in the elderly

EPIDEMIOLOGIC FORECASTING OF ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE
Overview
US
Sources used
Methods
Sources not used
Japan
Sources used
Methods
Sources not used
Major European markets
Sources used
Methods
Sources not used

EPIDEMIOLOGIC RESULTS
Total prevalent cases of Alzheimer’s disease
Average annual growth rate of Alzheimer’s disease
Age-standardized results for prevalent cases of Alzheimer’s disease
Subpopulations for prevalent cases of Alzheimer’s disease
Differential longevity between genders to impact prevalent cases
Adults aged 80–84 accounted for more than 2.2 million prevalent cases of Alzheimer’s disease in 2011

DISCUSSION
The strength of Datamonitor's epidemiologic projections

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Journal articles
Websites

APPENDIX A
Epidemiologic forecasting of mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer’s disease
Sources of epidemiologic data
Description of methods
Results
Current prevalent cases and future trends
Strengths of Datamonitor's epidemiologic projections
Limitations of Datamonitor's epidemiologic projections
Reference list

APPENDIX B
Module methodology

List of Tables

Table: Common clinical features in Alzheimer’s disease
Table: DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for Alzheimer's disease
Table: Population-based studies of total prevalent cases of Alzheimer’s disease used in Datamonitor’s analysis
Table: Total prevalent cases of Alzheimer’s disease in the seven major markets (000s), 2011–21
Table: Sex-specific prevalent cases of Alzheimer’s disease in the seven major markets, 2011
Table: Total prevalent cases of Alzheimer’s disease in 2011 by age group
Table: Total prevalent cases of Alzheimer’s disease in the seven major markets (000s), 2011–20

List of Figures

Figure: Trends in total Alzheimer's disease prevalent cases in the seven major markets (millions), 2011–21
Figure: Average annual growth rate in prevalent Alzheimer’s disease cases across the seven major markets, 2011–21
Figure: Age-standardized prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease in both genders in the seven major markets
Figure: Age-specific prevalence rates for mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer’s disease
Figure: Trends in total mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer's disease prevalent cases in the seven major markets (millions), 2011–20
Figure: Average annual growth rate in prevalent mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer’s disease cases across the seven major markets, 2012–21