A systematic review and meta-analysis on the prevalence of dementia in europe. estimates from the highest-quality studies adopting the dsm iv diagnostic criteria

BACKGROUND: Dementia, including Alzheimer's disease (AD), is one of the most burdensome medical conditions. Usually, the reviews that aim at calculating the prevalence of dementia include estimates from studies without assessing their methodological quality. Alzheimer's Disease International (ADI) proposed a score to assess the methodological quality of population-based studies aimed at estimating the prevalence of dementia. During the last three years, the European Commission has funded three projects (Eurodem, EuroCoDe, and ALCOVE) in order to estimate the prevalence of dementia in Europe. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to perform a systematic review and meta-analysis of data on the prevalence of dementia in Europe derived from studies that included only subjects with a diagnosis of dementia according to the DSM IV criteria, and that had a high quality score according to ADI criteria. METHODS: We considered the studies selected by the two projects EuroCoDe (1993-2007) and Alcove (2008-2011), and we performed a new bibliographic search. For the systematic review, we only selected the subset of articles that included subjects with a diagnosis of dementia according to the DSM IV criteria. The studies were qualitatively assessed using the ADI tool. RESULTS: The meta-analysis considered 9 studies that were carried out in Europe between 1993 and 2018 including a total of 18,263 participants, of which 2,137 were diagnosed with dementia. The prevalence rate standardized for age and sex resulted 7.1%. DISCUSSION: This is the first systematic review on the prevalence of dementia in Europe considering only high-quality studies adopting the same diagnostic criteria (i.e., DSM IV)

An estimate of attributable cases of alzheimer disease and vascular dementia due to modifiable risk factors. the impact of primary prevention in europe and in italy

Background: Up to 53.7% of all cases of dementia are assumed to be due to Alzheimer disease (AD), while 15.8% are considered to be due to vascular dementia (VaD). In Europe, about 3 million cases of AD could be due to 7 potentially modifiable risk factors: diabetes, midlife hypertension and/or obesity, physical inactivity, depression, smoking, and low educational level. Aims: To estimate the number of VaD cases in Europe and the number of AD and VaD cases in Italy attributable to these 7 potentially modifiable risk factors. Methods: Assuming the nonindependence of the 7 risk factors, the adjusted combined population attributable risk (PAR) was estimated for AD and VaD. Results: In Europe, adjusted combined PAR was 31.4% for AD and 37.8% for VaD. The total number of attributable cases was 3,033,000 for AD and 873,000 for VaD. In Italy, assuming a 20% reduction of the prevalence of each risk factor, adjusted combined PAR decreased from 45.2 to 38.9% for AD and from 53.1 to 46.6% for VaD, implying a 6.4 and 6.5% reduction in the prevalence of AD and VaD, respectively. Conclusion: A relevant reduction of AD and VaD cases in Europe and Italy could be obtained through primary prevention

The Italian fund for Alzheimer's and other dementias: strategies and objectives to face the dementia challenge

The Italian Fund for Alzheimer's and other dementias was approved and signed in December 2021. The Fund is financed with 15 million euros in three years. The main goal is to provide new strategies in the field of dementia with a Public Health perspective. The Fund includes eight main activities that will be monitored and supervised by the Italian National Institute of Health: 1) development of a guideline for the assessment, management and support for people with dementia and their families/carers; 2) updating of the Dementia National Plan (DNP); 3) implementation of the documents of the DNP; 4) conducting surveys dedicated to the Italian Dementia Services; 5) promotion of dementia prevention strategies; 6) training strategies for healthcare professionals, families and caregivers; 7) creation of a National Electronic Record for Dementia; 8) evaluation and monitoring of activities promoted by Regions and Autonomous Provinces in the field of dementia, together with the dementia National Permanent Table. These activities are outlined in detail in the present paper

An overview of international literature on school interventions to promote mental health and well-being in children and adolescents

Mental disorders are the largest cause of the burden of disease in the world. Most of the burden affecting adult life has its onset during childhood and adolescence. The European Pact for Mental Health and Wellbeing calls for immediate action and investments in the mental health of children and adolescents. Schools may be the ideal location for promoting health and delivering healthcare services, since schools are a location where young people usually spend their daytime and socialize, schools are easily accessible to families, can provide non-stigmatizing health actions, and form links with the community. Aims and Goals of this Special Issue: This issue is developed within the framework of the Joint Action on Mental Health promoted by the European Commission. This special issue presents a set of systematic reviews on the evidence of the international literature on school interventions for the promotion of the mental health and wellbeing of children and adolescents. It is focused on five topical main areas: promoting general health and wellbeing; programs targeting specific mental disorders and conditions and integration of adolescents with mental health problems; Bullying; Sport; Alcohol and Drugs. An additional paper on the results of the largest epidemiological study conducted in some European countries on the prevalence and relative risk factors of mental disorders in school-age completes the issue

Alzheimer. Conoscere la malattia per saperla affrontare

Il testo affronta la tematica della malattia di Alzheimer, l'impatto sui familiari che curano e fornisce strumenti concetttuali e pratici per gestire i disturbi cognitivi e comportamentali determinati dalla malattia

Integrated care pathways on dementia in Italy: a survey testing the compliance with a national guidance

Dementias are chronic, degenerative neurological disorders with a complex management that require the cooperation of different healthcare professionals. The Italian Ministry of Health produced the document “Guidance on Integrated Care pathway for People with Dementia” (GICPD) with the specific objective of providing a standardized framework for the definition, development, and implementation of integrated care pathways (ICP) dedicated to people with dementia. We searched all available Italian territorial ICPs. Two raters assessed the retrieved ICPs with a 2-point scale on a 43-item checklist based on the GICPD. Only 5 out of 21 regions and 5 out of 101 local health authorities had an ICP, with most ICPs having a moderate compliance to the GICPD, in particular for the items referring to the development and implementation of the care pathways. A low to moderate inter-rater agreement was observed, mainly due to a lack of standardized models to describe ICPs for dementias. Results suggest that policy- and decision-makers should pay more attention to the GICPD when producing ICPs. The direct communication with clinicians, and the implementation of more precise and appropriate clinical outcomes, could increase the involvement of clinicians, whose participation is crucial to guarantee that ICPs meet needs of patients and their carers