Incidence and Prevalence of Dementia: A 2015–2020 Population-Based Study in the Campania Region of Italy

Abstract

Plain Language SummaryDementia is a loss of memory and other functions related to thinking and to the ability to do everyday chores, usually occurring in the elderly and getting worse over time. The most common kind is Alzheimer’s dementia. Here, we estimated the number of people who are sick with dementia (prevalence) and how many new cases of dementia there are (incidence) in the Campania region (South Italy) from 2015 to 2020. We included individuals aged 65 years and above who have used dementia medications, were admitted to hospitals due to dementia, and/or had payment exemptions for dementia. Among 1,118,545 individuals older than 65 years living in the Campania region of Italy (among 5,624,260 inhabitants), we identified 80,392 people older than 65 years with dementia (62.4% females; age about 80 years), among which 35,748 people had Alzheimer’s dementia (63.0% females; age about 79 years). Based on these numbers, we estimated 77 people living with dementia per 1,000 people (85 for females and 67 for males) and 34 with Alzheimer’s dementia per 1,000 people (37 for females and 29 for males). The number of new cases per year was 82 per 100,000 for any dementia and 59 for Alzheimer’s dementia. We showed that our data were accurate by comparing results of tests measuring memory and other functions and found that only 1.7–3.0% of cases remained undetected. These measures will be important to identify risk factors, guide prevention strategies, and improve care and support for affected individuals and their families.