Epidemiology of Alzheimer’s disease in the Odesa region

Abstract

The aim of the work was to study the epidemiology of Alzheimer’s disease in the Odesa region. Materials and methods. The study was carried out on the basis of the Regional Mental Health Center (Odesa) in 2016–2021. The data of the primary referral of patients with a verified diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease were analyzed. Statistical processing of the obtained data was performed by frequency analysis methods using standard MS Excel packages (Microsoft Inc., USA). The population of the Odesa region was determined according to the State Statistics Service of Ukraine. Results. According to the retrospective analysis over the past 5 years, there was a constant increase in the number of identified patients with Alzheimer’s disease, from 4.9 cases per 100,000 population in 2016 to 6.0 cases in 2020 with a slight predominance of women in the structure of cases. Brain MRI was performed only in 29 (4.6 %) patients, EEG in 41 (6.5 %) patients. There were no cases of familial Alzheimer’s disease or early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. In 2020, Alzheimer’s and dementia deaths reached 14,196 or 2.54 % of total mortality in Ukraine. Conclusions. The prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease was 6.0 cases per 100,000 in the population of the Odesa region at the end of 2021, which was an order of magnitude less than the global average. The mean score on the MMSE scale was 18.6 ± 0.5. The analysis on subscales has shown the prevalence of memory, spatial orientation and verbal disorders. The Ukrainian population is characterized by the small number of patients of the older age group (3.3 %) and the predominance of female patients (59.4 %).