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Stroke and dementia, leading causes of neurological disability and death, potential for prevention
Author(s) -
Avan Abolfazl,
Hachinski Vladimir
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
alzheimer's and dementia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.713
H-Index - 118
eISSN - 1552-5279
pISSN - 1552-5260
DOI - 10.1002/alz.12340
Subject(s) - dementia , stroke (engine) , medicine , falling (accident) , cause of death , environmental health , disease , mechanical engineering , engineering
Stroke and dementia share a number of modifiable risk factors and are the leading cause of neurological disability and death worldwide. Methods We report the 2019 estimations for global disability‐adjusted life years (DALYs) and death numbers and rates related to stroke and dementia, as well as their risk attributed DALYs and deaths and their changes between 2010 and 2019. Results Stroke accounted for 69.8%, dementia for 17.3%, and combined contributed to 87.2% (8.2 million) of neurological deaths and 61.7% (168.5 million) of neurological DALYs in 2019. For stroke, 86.4% of DALYs and for dementias 32.8% of DALYs are attributable to risk factors. Globally, hypertension (54.8%) and unhealthy diet (30.0%) pose the greatest risk for stroke DALYs, and smoking (15.1%) and obesity (12.5%) for dementia DALYs. Discussion Worldwide, stroke and dementia cases are increasing in number, but their age‐standardized rates are falling. Finding out why offers the possibility of their joint delay, mitigation, or prevention.