Nearly 20% of Indian adults aged 60 and above exhibit mild neurocognitive disorder, as per a study. With around 138 million adults in this age group, the estimates indicate that approximately 24 million have mild neurocognitive disorder, and 9.9 million are affected by major neurocognitive disorder. The findings are published in the journal PLOS One.

Dementia Looms Large in India’s Aging Population

“India, with its rapidly aging population, faces an alarming burden of dementia,” said the team including from St. John’s Medical College in Bengaluru and Johns Hopkins University in the US. For the study, the team recruited almost 4,100 participants residing in 18 geographically and linguistically diverse states such as Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Delhi, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, among others. The majority of the group was aged 60-79 years.

They found that the prevalence is higher with older age, less educational attainment, and among illiterate and rural-living older adults. These findings highlight the growing importance of dementia in India. “The prevalence of dementia in India is higher than previously recognized. These findings, coupled with a growing number of older adults in the coming decades in India, have important implications for society, public health, and families,” the researchers said in the paper.

The team analysed the participants using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) — a widely recognized clinical diagnostic authority. The results showed that the population prevalence of DSM-5 mild and major neurocognitive disorder was 17.6 percent and 7.2 percent, respectively.

Further, 12 percent reported severe loss in at least one ADL (activities of daily living) and 8.5 percent reported impairment in any IADL (instrumental activities of daily living).Major neurocognitive disorder was more prevalent among illiterate (9.3 percent) than literate (5 percent) and rural (10.3 percent) than urban (4.9 percent).

Source-IANS