Epidemiology: What are the chances YOU will have it?
According to Alzheimer's Association:
About 5.3 million Americans of all ages have Alzheimer's disease in 2015.
- 5.1 million of those Americans with Alzheimer's are 65 years or older
- Of the 5.1 million, age 65+, 3.2 million are women and 1.9 million are men
- 200,000 of the 5.3 million are under age 65
- It is expected to reach 12 to 16 million Americans by 2050
To put it in another perspective, every 67 seconds someone in America is diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.
Race/Ethnicity
Majority of people in the United States with Alzheimer's disease and other dementias are non-white hispanics. Of the 5.1 million people who are 65 years or older and are suffering from AD, 7.8% of them are whites, 18.8% are African-Americans, and 20.8% are Hispanics.
Education
Studies show that those with fewer years of education are at a higher risk for Alzheimer's disease than those with more years of education. This is said to be because those with a higher level of education have a "cognitive reserve*" that helps people better deal with changes in the brain that can occur from AD. Although, having a higher level of education can help reduce the risk of developing AD, once these people have memory loss, having this higher education, does not protect against how fast they will lose their memory.
*Cognitive reserve is how well your brain resists damage psychologically. This means that people with a higher cognitive reserve are less susceptible to the behavioral affects of AD. Even if their brain shows signs of the development of the disease, they have minimal symptoms because they have strong cognitive reserve. Cognitive reserve literally means how well one can keep his or her mind, despite physical changes in the brain.
Sources: http://www.alz.org/facts/http://www.nursingceu.com/courses/400/index_nceu.html
http://www.cumc.columbia.edu/dept/sergievsky/pdfs/CogResTheory.pdf
Image: http://www.alz.org/facts/
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