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What is dementia? -

Dementia is a cover term used for diseases that affect a person’s memory and cognitive function. Examples include Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia.

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Worldwide statistics -

Worldwide there are more than 50 million people living with dementia, and, according to recent studies, that number is only set to rise.

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Age as a risk factor -

When it comes to the risk factors for dementia, the key one is age. Indeed, the likelihood of developing dementia increases significantly as we get older.

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One's sex as a risk factor -

However, statistics also show that one's sex also has a role to play, and that women seem to be much more affected than men.

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Data -

In Australia, for example, studies show that nearly two-thirds of all dementia-related deaths are in women. In the US, two-thirds of people living with dementia are women.

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Why are women more affected? -

In terms of why women are more likely to develop dementia, an important reason has to do with the other risk factor: age.

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Women live longer -

On average, women live longer than men. Given that the risk of dementia increases with age, and there are more older women than men, it follows that there are more women with dementia.

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Other reasons -

However, research suggests that there are also other reasons that women are more affected by dementia than men.

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Important risk factors -

One of these other reasons is related to public health campaigns targeting heart disease and smoking, both of which are risk factors for dementia.

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Successful campaigns -

Since men tend to smoke more than women and suffer with heart disease from a younger age, researchers believe these campaigns may be more impactful, and therefore help reduce these risk factors further—for men.

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Statistics -

Indeed, one recent study in the UK showed that a drop in the number of new dementia cases was driven by a fall in cases among men over 65.

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Other risk factors -

At the same time, there are other risk factors for dementia that appear to affect women more than men.

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Depression -

For example, depression, which disproportionately affects women, has been linked with the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.

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Hormonal factors -

Furthermore, there are certain female-only risk factors, such as surgical menopause and pregnancy complications, that have been linked with cognitive decline later in life.

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Social roles -

There is even evidence to suggest that social roles, such as caregiving, may increase the chance that a person will develop dementia.

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Caregiving -

In most countries around the world, the majority of caregiving roles are assumed by women.

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Caregiving -

In the UK, for example, 60-70% of all unpaid caregivers taking care of someone with dementia are women.

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Bridging the gap -

In order to address the gap in dementia prevention, diagnosis, and treatment, scientists are working to understand more about female-specific risk factors.

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2018 review -

In 2018, for example, the Women’s Brain Project published a major review that looked at a decade’s worth of scientific literature related to Alzheimer’s disease.

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Revising and stratifying data -

Scientists were asked to revise existing data and stratify it by sex for the first time ever.

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Clear patterns -

According to Maria Teresa Ferretti, a biomedical researcher in the field of Alzheimer’s disease at the University of Zurich, some clear patterns emerged from the literature.

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Display and progression -

The most obvious differences were related to the display and progression of cognitive and psychiatric symptoms between men and women.

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Using the findings -

According to Ferretti, the findings from this study can be used to design new hypotheses and figure out better ways to treat dementia patients.

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The problem with testing -

There are also calls for doctors to review the ways in which patients are tested for dementia and the ways in which the disease is diagnosed.

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Better initial performance -

Indeed, research suggests that women perform better on initial diagnostic tests, and that this can have serious consequences for their diagnosis and treatment.

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Potential issues -

For example, a high performance on initial tests may lead to a missed diagnosis or an underestimation of the severity of the disease.

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The problem with trials -

Finally, there is an argument that more women should be included in clinical trials if doctors are to find a more effective treatment.

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50/50 split -

Until now, there has generally been an almost even sex split, despite the fact that more women are affected by dementia than men.

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Improvement suggestion -

It has been argued that, in order to find better treatments for dementia, the sex split in clinical trials should be more representative, as in trials for other diseases, such as depression and multiple sclerosis (MS).

Sources: (BBC)

See also: These heart issues could be early indicators of dementia risk

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