The study of epidemiology of dementia and Alzgeimer’s disease in Ukraine

Abstract

Against the background of systematic aging of the population and increase in life expectancy the problems of the spread of all forms of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, are becoming increasingly important. Аim. To study epidemiology of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease in Ukraine. Materials and methods. Data from the Center for Mental Health and Monitoring of Drugs and Alcohol of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine for 2015-2019 were studied. In the research, in addition to general theoretical methods, methods of epidemiological studies were also used. Results and discussion. It has been found that since 2018 in Ukraine, the incidence rates of all mental disorders (4.0 %) increased, including organic lesions with symptomatic manifestations of cognitive impairment (2.0 %), all forms of dementia (6.0 %), vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s disease (9.0 % each). The structure of dementia is dominated by vascular forms of dementia (62.59 %), while Alzheimer’s disease has been characterized since 2015 by a systematic increase in the proportion (%) from 7.0 % to 12.0 %. The average prevalence of dementia in Ukraine is 99.72, and Alzheimer’s disease is 5.34 per 100 thousand population. A significant fluctuation in the prevalence of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease in different regions of the country has been proven. Thus, in the regions of the country, these indicators differed by 6 or more times. The highest prevalence rates of dementia were observed in 7 regions (Vinnytsia, Donetsk, Zaporizhia, Zhytomyr, Kharkiv, Cherkasy and Chernihiv regions) and Kyiv, and for Alzheimer’s disease – in 3 regions (Zaporizhia, Kherson, Chernihiv) and Kyiv. Conclusions. It is necessary to introduce an effective system for recording and monitoring cases of all forms of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease. This will form the basis for the development of models for the rational distribution of healthcare resources for the effective treatment and social rehabilitation of these groups of patients in Ukraine.