CANBERRA, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- Dementia has surpassed heart disease as the leading cause of disease burden in older Australians.
A report released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) revealed that dementia was responsible for almost 230,000 years of healthy life lost among people aged 65 and older in 2022, an increase of 61 percent since 2011.
It marks the first time dementia, an umbrella term for conditions that gradually impair brain function, has overtaken coronary heart disease as the leading cause of disease burden, which is calculated by combining years of healthy life lost due to illness with the years lost from premature death.
"It is an increasing cause of disease burden in Australia, largely due to our ageing population, but also from declines in burden from other leading causes, such as coronary heart disease," AIHW spokesperson Melanie Dunford said in a media release.
"Dementia was responsible for 4.4 percent of Australia's disease burden in 2022, which includes both the impact of living with the condition and dying prematurely, and was the 2nd leading cause of death in Australia in 2020, accounting for 9.6 percent of all deaths."
According to the AIHW, the number of Australians living with dementia increased by four percent from 2021 to 2022 to 401,300, a figure that is expected to double to 849,300 by 2058 without major research advancements.
Alzheimer's disease was the most common form of dementia, accounting for about 60 percent of all cases. ■
