In the United Kingdom, over 233 thousand people aged 90 years and above were living with dementia in 2018, this number was forecast to rise to 579 thousand by 2050. Dementia is a symptom of Alzheimer's disease, a progressive neurological disorder generally associated with aging. This explains the rise in the number of people living with dementia as age advances.

Deaths registered in 2019 in England and Wales due to dementia and Alzheimer's disease, by sex, age group, ethnicity, region and place of occurrence. Includes analysis of comorbidities.

This statistic shows the projected number of individuals with dementia in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2014, 2025 and 2051. The number of individuals with dementia is projected to grow by 156 percent over the next 38 years from 2014, with an estimated 2 million individuals being diagnosed from dementia in 2051.

This statistic shows the number of individuals with dementia in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2014 In the United Kingdom over 815.8 thousand individuals have dementia, of which 685.8 thousand live in England.

This statistic shows the number of excess winter deaths caused by underlying dementia and Alzheimer's disease in England and Wales in 2020/21 and 2021/22, by age. In the winter period 2021/22 around 1.3 thousand individuals aged 90 years and over died from underlying dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

A set of data on aspects of dementia published on the myhealthlondon website.

DEM0001 - Numbers of people with a diagnosis
DEM0002 - Diagnosis rates
DEM0003 - Care reviews for GP patients
DEM0004 - Dementia today
DEM0005 - Spend on anti-dementia drugs
DEM0006 - Waiting to be tested by Memory Clinics
DEM0007 - Waiting for results at Memory Clinics
DEM0008 - Looking for dementia in hospital
DEM0009 - Assessing dementia in hospital
DEM0010 - Referring people for further tests
DEM0011 - Help to remain at home
DEM0012 - Dying with dementia in hospital
DEM0013 - Involving people in research
DEM0014 - Length of stay in hospital
DEM0015 - Making sure people are treated well in hospital
DEM0016 - Caring for people in hospital
DEM0017 - Meeting mental health needs of people in hospital
DEM0018 - Helping people when they leave hospital
DEM0019 - Understanding people's needs in hospital
DEM0020 - Recognising dementia in hospital
DEM0021 - Training staff on dementia in hospital
DEM0022 - Resources for supporting people in hospital
DEM0023 - Specialist dementia care for people in hospital
DEM0024 - Delays in leaving hospital
DEM0025 - Going back into hospital

Data are provided in a standardised schema with each record containing an indicator ID and organisation ID. These can be matched against the Indicator Lookup, Organisation Lookup and Period Lookup tables included in the file, which also includes further metadata.

This statistic shows the distribution of sector costs associated with dementia in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2013. Unpaid care accounts for 44.2 percent of the sector costs associated with living with dementia.

This statistic shows the average annual cost of healthcare per person with dementia in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2013. Individuals with a severe form of dementia had an average annual cost of 9.3 thousand British pounds for healthcare.

Indicators from the Office for National Statistics’ Opinions and Lifestyle Survey to understand the public's perception of their knowledge of dementia and what individuals believe can be done to reduce risk.

This indicator measures the number of people that have been diagnosed with dementia as a proportion of the number who are estimated to have the condition. This indicator aims to capture the quality of life of people with dementia. It measures the extent of diagnosis for people with dementia by estimating the proportion of the population that has been diagnosed with the disease. There are no planned future updates for this indicator. The methodology for the indicator requires review, this is not actively being progressed at this time. Legacy unique identifier: P01754

This statistic shows the average annual cost of unpaid care per person with dementia in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2013. Individuals with a severe form of dementia had an average annual cost for unpaid care of approximately 9.6 thousand British pounds.

Background: Agitation is a common, challenging symptom affecting large numbers of people with dementia and impacting on quality of life (QoL). There is an urgent need for evidence-based, cost-effective psychosocial interventions to improve these outcomes, particularly in the absence of safe, effective pharmacological therapies. This study aimed evaluate the efficacy of a person-centered care and psychosocial intervention (WHELD) on QoL, agitation and antipsychotic use in people with dementia living in nursing homes, and to determine its cost. Methods and Findings: This was a randomized controlled cluster trial conducted between 1st January 2013 and 30th September 2015 which compared the WHELD intervention with treatment as usual in people with dementia living in 69 UK nursing homes, using an intention to treat analysis. All nursing homes allocated to the intervention received staff training in person-centered care (PCC), social interaction (SoI) and education regarding antipsychotic medications (AM) followed by ongoing delivery through a care staff champion model. Primary outcome measure was QoL (DEMQOL-proxy). Secondary outcomes were agitation (Cohen Mansfield Agitation Inventory), neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPI), antipsychotic use, global deterioration (CDR), mood (Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia CSSD), unmet needs (Camberwell Assessment of Need in the Elderly CANE), mortality, quality of interactions (Quality of Interactions Scale –QUIS), pain (Abbey) and cost. Costs were calculated using cost function figures compared with usual costs. 847 people were randomized to WHELD or treatment as usual, of whom 553 completed the nine-month RCT. The intervention conferred a statistically significant improvement in QoL (DEMQOL proxy z score 2.82, p=0.0042, Mean Difference 2.54 SEM 0.88, 95% Confidence Intervals (CI) 0.81, 4.28, Cohen’s D Effect Size 0.24). There were also statistically significant benefits in agitation (CMAI Z score 2.68 p=0.0076, Mean Difference 4.27 SEM 1.59, 95% CI -7.39, -1.15, Cohen’s D 0.23) and overall neuropsychiatric symptoms (Z score 3.52 Mean Difference 4.55 SEM 1.28 p=0.00045, 95% CI -7.07,-2.02, Effect Size 0.30). Benefits were greatest in people with moderate-moderately severe dementia. There was a statistically significant benefit in positive care interactions as measured by QUIS (19.7% increase, SEM 8.94, 95% CI 2.12, 37.16, Cohen’s D 0.55, P=0.03). There were no statistically significant differences between WHELD and treatment as usual for the other outcomes. A sensitivity analysis using a pre-specified imputation model confirmed statistically significant benefits in DEMQOL proxy, CMAI and NPI with the WHELD intervention. Antipsychotic drug prescribing was at a low stable level in both treatment groups and the intervention did not reduce use. The WHELD intervention reduced cost compared to treatment as usual, and the benefits achieved were therefore associated with a cost saving. The main limitation was that antipsychotic review was based on augmenting processes within care homes to trigger medical review and did not in this study involve proactive primary care education. An additional limitation was the inherent challenge of assessing QoL in this patient group. Conclusions: These findings suggest that the WHELD intervention confers benefits to QoL, agitation and neuropsychiatric symptoms, albeit with relatively small effect sizes, as well as cost saving in a model that can readily be implemented into nursing homes. Future work should consider how to facilitate sustainability of the intervention in these settings. Trial registration: ISRCTN Registry ISRCTN62237498

This statistic shows the number of individuals with early-onset dementia in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2013. In the United Kingdom over 42 thousand individuals have early-onset dementia, of which 35 thousand live in England.

People living with dementia experience higher levels of sleep dysfunction compared to healthy older people. Poor sleep is common in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB); two common causes of neurodegenerative dementia comprising of approximately 70% of diagnoses. Sleep dysfunction in dementia has been attributed as a significant contributing factor to early admittance into care. (Sloan, 2015, Saheed, 2017, Figuerio et al, 2015, Forbes et al, 2014). Sleep is important for quality of life, health and well-being and when the sleep of both the person with dementia and their caregiver is affected, supporting individuals to live independently at home becomes more challenging. A significant contributing factor to a move out of the home prematurely into institutional care is sleep dysfunction in the person with dementia, resulting in caregiver exhaustion and burnout. Given the complexity of sleep problems, there is a need for tools which can evaluate poor sleep in populations living with dementia.

The Nurolight study sought to explore the impact of poor sleep on people living with dementia and their care partners.

Using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index; a tool designed to evaluate sleep disturbances in populations. It comprises Comprising of 19 self-reported items belonging to one of seven subcategories: subjective sleep quality, sleep latency, sleep duration, habitual sleep efficiency, sleep disturbances, use of sleeping medication, and daytime dysfunction. An additional section of 5 questions relates to partner/roommate reporting and are not scored.

The Nurolight assessed 11 participants (M=6, F=5). The component scores are summed to produce a global score (range 0 to 21). Higher scores indicate poor sleep quality, with a score greater than 5 suggesting significant sleep difficulties. Findings from this study indicate that 81% participants were considered to have significant sleep difficulties.

In the MODEM cohort study, three-hundred and seven people with clinically diagnosed dementia and their carers were recruited on a quota basis to provide equal numbers of people with mild (standardised Mini-Mental State Examination (sMMSE), n = 110), moderate (sMMSE 10–19, n = 100), and severe (sMMSE 0–9, n = 97) cognitive impairment. Participants had a medical diagnosis of dementia made by a specialist mental health service. To be eligible the person with dementia needed to have an identifiable family (or friend) carer or other informant (e.g. a formal/professional carer). There were no exclusion criteria based on comorbidities, age, or type of dementia. The carer was required to self-identify themselves as a carer for the person with dementia. There were no other inclusion or exclusion criteria. Participants were recruited from memory services in Sussex, UK, or self-referral from a national electronic database (Join Dementia Research; https://www.joindementiaresearch.nihr.ac.uk/), community groups, and care homes in the South East of England. People with dementia and their carers were provided with information about the research and invited to participate in the study. A pair of researchers then visited the participants in their home (or another location convenient for the participant). The capacity of the person with dementia was formally assessed by a trained researcher. If the person with dementia did not have capacity to consent, a personal consultee (family member/friend) was identified to advise on whether the person with dementia should take part. For those with capacity, informed consent was obtained. The two researchers then completed a series of measures with the person with dementia and the carer in parallel. For the person with dementia, the following measures were collected: self-reported quality of life (DEMQOL, EQ-5D-3L, CASP-19); proxy-reported quality of life (DEMQOL-Proxy, EQ-5D-3L); severity of cognitive impairment (sMMSE, ADAS-COG); neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPI), depression (Cornell scale); activity limitation (BADLS, OARS); and comorbidities (CCI). Measures collected for the carer were: self-reported measures of quality of life (EQ-5D-3L, SF-12); social isolation (SIS); carer burden (ZCBI); and mental well-being (GHQ). Data were also collected on the use of services and level of help received by formal and unpaid carers and provided by the carer (CSRI) and demographic characteristics of the person with dementia and carer.