# The Epidemiological Scale of Alzheimer’s Disease

## TL;DR

Alzheimer’s disease has become a major global health issue, with rising incidence and prevalence rates that vary significantly between genders and age groups.

## Contribution

The paper highlights the need for standardized reporting of Alzheimer’s disease epidemiology and presents gender-specific incidence and prevalence trends.

## Key findings

- Between ages 60 and 90, Alzheimer’s incidence increases 41-fold in women and 2-fold in men.
- Prevalence increases 77-fold in women and 55.25-fold in men.
- Only about half of people with mild cognitive impairment develop Alzheimer’s disease.

## Abstract

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) has increased from a few cases in a country at the beginning of the 20th century to an incidence of recording a case every 7 seconds in the world. From a rare disease it has reached the top 8 of major health problems in the world. One of the epidemiological problems of AD is the fact that authors from different countries use different reporting units. Some report numbers to 100,000 inhabitants, others to 1,000 inhabitants and others report the total number of cases in a country. Standardization of these reports is strictly necessary. The rise in incidence and prevalence with age is known, but interesting to see is that the incidence and prevalence do not rise in a parallel manner with age as simple logic would assume. Between the ages of 60 and 90, the incidence in men increases two times and in women 41 times, prevalence increase in men is 55.25-fold and in women 77-fold. Regarding the women/men ratio, the incidence is 20.5-fold increased, and prevalence is merely 1.3936-fold increased. These numbers raise concerns about the evolution of the disease. Regarding mild cognitive impairment (MCI)/AD ratio, only about 1 in 2 people get AD (raising?) issues about the pathogenic disease relatedness.