WHO Guidelines on Dementia

"While there is no cure for dementia, up to 45 percent of the risks can be attributed to modifiable risk factors such as tobacco, alcohol use, social isolation, physical inactivity, air pollution and noncommunicable diseases [NCSs], including high blood pressure and diabetes."

"Dementia can be caused by several diseases which over time damage the brain, typically leading to deterioration in cognitive function beyond what might be expected from the usual consequences of biological ageing. The impairment in cognitive function is commonly accompanied, and occasionally preceded, by changes in mood, emotional control, behaviour or motivation."

World Health Organization 

Dementia   World Health Organization

 

"Behind these numbers are individuals, families, and communities navigating profound challenges that affect not only health, but dignity, independence, and well-being."

"This is not a distant issue; it touches all of us."

Devora Kestel, director, WHO, NCDs and mental health department  

According to the World Health Organization, citing modifiable risk factors such as tobacco and air pollution, up to 45 percent of dementia risk could be prevented or delayed. As the seventh global leading cause of death, a major cause of disability and dependency among older people within the international community, this is no small thing, the caution that dementia can be caused by circumstances that can be altered in deliberate change of lifestyle geared to avoidance. 

 

Surrendering to physical lassitude, succumbing to a general disinterest in events around us, failing to remain cognitively engaged, to exercise brain and body, are all critical elements in wasting what we have. Worldwide over 57 million people live with dementia, while some ten million people are diagnosed with it annually. Alzheimer's disease, the most common form of dementia is estimated to make up 70 percent of diagnoses.   

Early signs and symptoms are:

• forgetting things or recent events
• losing or misplacing things
• getting lost when walking or driving
• being confused, even in familiar places
• losing track of time
• difficulties solving problems or making decisions
• problems following conversations or trouble finding words
• difficulties performing familiar tasks
• misjudging distances to objects visually.

Changes in mood and behaviour sometimes happen even before memory problems occur. Common changes include:

• feeling anxious, sad, or angry about memory loss
• personality changes
• inappropriate behaviour
• withdrawal from work or social activities
• being less interested in other people’s emotions.

An updated WHO guide was published recently focusing on how health workers and policy-makers can organize themselves to help in the prevention or delay of dementia onset. The first such dementia recommendations by the UN health agency was issued in 2019; since that time new evidence and understanding of dementia has grown significantly. 

 

Early awareness and intervention are addressed as critical issues on the guidelines, for the purpose of reducing he burden of dementia in years to come. The WHO is convinced that the condition is not an inevitable outcome of aging, although its onset is more common after age 65. "We know more today than ever before about what drives dementia risk, and these guidelines translate that knowledge into action", stated WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.  

"Dementia is caused by many different diseases or injuries that damage the brain. Alzheimer disease is the most common form and contributes to 60–70% of cases. Other forms include vascular dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies [abnormal deposits of protein inside nerve cells], and a group of diseases that contribute to frontotemporal dementia  [degeneration of the frontal lobe of the brain]."

"Dementia may also develop after a stroke, in the context of certain infections such as HIV, as a result of harmful use of alcohol, after repeated injuries to the brain, or because of nutritional deficiencies. The boundaries between different forms of dementia are not always clear and mixed forms often co-exist."

World Health Organization 

 Although age is the strongest known risk factor for dementia, dementia can also affect younger people, and young-onset dementia – in which symptoms begin before the age of 65 – accounts for up to 9% of cases.

Evidence suggests that people can reduce the risk of cognitive decline and dementia by adopting healthy behaviours and lifestyles, managing health conditions that are known to increase the risk for dementia, and reducing environmental risk factors.

Important actions include:

• being physically active
• not smoking
• avoiding harmful alcohol use
• eating a healthy, balanced diet
• staying socially and cognitively active
• maintaining a healthy weight
• managing blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels
• using hearing aids where needed
• reducing exposure to air pollution.