• Acta Medica Port · Mar 2015

    [The Epidemiology of Dementia and Alzheimer Disease in Portugal: Estimations of Prevalence and Treatment-Costs].

    • Isabel Santana, Filipa Farinha, Sandra Freitas, Vítor Rodrigues, and Ålvaro Carvalho.
    • Centro de Neurociências e Biologia Celular. Universidade de Coimbra. Coimbra. Portugal. Departamento de Neurologia. Faculdade de Medicina. Universidade de Coimbra. Coimbra. Portugal. Consulta de Demência. Serviço de Neurologia. Centro Hospitalar e Universitário de Coimbra. Coimbra. Portugal.
    • Acta Medica Port. 2015 Mar 1; 28 (2): 182-8.

    IntroductionThe incidence and prevalence of global dementia and Alzheimer's disease (AD) increase with age, almost doubling every five years after the sixth decade of life. Demographic aging is a reality in Portugal, being expectable that the number of dementia cases also increases. Even so, dementia-epidemiological data in Portugal is scarce and cost-of-illness studies are almost inexistent. Our aims were to obtain up-to-date information about the prevalence of dementia/ Alzheimer's disease in Portugal, to estimate the number of cases effectively diagnosed as Alzheimer's disease and to determine illness-costs with specific dementia treatment.Material And MethodsThe numbers of age-adjusted prevalence of dementia obtained for Occidental Europe (Alzheimer's Disease International study), where applied to the resident population in Portugal (2013). Estimations related to diagnosis and treatment-costs were based in data provided by the Intercontinental Marketing Services Health (IMSH)-2013.ResultsThe estimated number of Portuguese people with dementia among those aged ≥60 years, is 160,287, representing 5.91% of this population-stratum. Knowing Alzheimer's disease is responsible for 50-70% of all cases, we might conclude there are between 80,144 and 112,201 patients. According to IMSH-data, 76250 receive anti-dementia drugs and the costs of this kind of medication is 37 M€¬/year.ConclusionsAs a consequence of the demographic aging, also the number of dementia cases increases. Apparently, not all Alzheimer's disease patients receive the recommended medication, suggesting this condition is still under-diagnosed. However, figures indicate a positive progression with an increment of treated cases and a reduction of medication-costs.

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