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| Sunday, 26 October 2003 |
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Dementia : Sri Lanka has highest prevalence rate in region by CAROL ALOYSIUS A community study to study the prevalence rate of Dementia in Sri Lanka has shown an overall prevalence rate of nearly 4%, which health authorities believe is almost on par with developed countries in the West. The study conducted on 703 subjects aged 65 years and older selected from four public midwives' areas used the Sinhala version of the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) developed by Dr H.A. de Sliva and Dr S.B. Gunatilake. Dementia has been described as one of the most distressing and burdensome health problems associated with ageing populations, and its upward climb in Sri Lanka has been attributed to its rapidly greying population, expected to peak at 21 per cent by 2025. "Longevity is the main cause for this rise in Dementia in this country, because Dementia is an age related disease" Dr Asitha de Silva told the Sunday Observer. Other causes are low level of education and a gene called ApOE4A which increases the risk of Alzheimer. The latter increases the risk ten fold in the West and the same increase has been found here" he said. According to the study he had done with two other doctors, Sri Lanka's prevalence rate is much higher than the other countries in the region, especially India. "In Delhi the prevalence rate was only 1.4% and in Kerala 3.4% in two separate studies. The study found that compared with other community studies performed in North India, Dementia prevalence is higher in Sri Lanka. This may be due to regional difference", Dr de Silva said. "We considered all the risk factors and found that they were linked to alzheimer at some level as in the West, unlike other countries in the region. The question was why?", he said. In the study sample, 86 per cent were between 65 and 75 years. Forty two subjects screened positive in phase 1 of the survey. Of these 28 were diagnosed with having Dementia, giving an overall prevalence rate of 3.98%. Dr. de Silva emphasised the importance of initiating adequate health care facilities for the elderly as an urgent priority by the State. "We have to deal with problems associated with ageing Now and not Tomorrow which will be too late. Upto now because of less emphasis on the health of older persons even research on an important topic like Dementia has been side-lined. Thus the extent of the public health burden currently posed by Alzheimer disease ( AD) and other dementias in Sri Lanka is unknown."It was to fill that gap that the community study had been conducted between August 2002 and October 2001, he pointed out. The findings were presented at an international meeting at Newcastle. |
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