The risk of developing dementia may be much higher than health experts previously thought. A newly published study shows two in five people will develop dementia in their lifetime, a large difference from older studies.
Older studies estimated about 14% of men and 23% of women would develop dementia at some point in their life. However, it’s much higher, with 42% of both men and women 55 and older expected to develop the disease, according to the study published this week in the journal Nature Medicine.
The biggest finding from the study is that the number of people diagnosed with dementia every year is expected to double, jumping from 514,000 in 2020 to 1 million per year by 2060.
Researchers say a big reason is because Baby Boomers are aging and they make up the second-largest faction of the U.S. population after millennials. By 2040 all baby boomers will be at least 75 years old, which is when dementia diagnoses were found to increase substantially.
The new research found only about 17% of cases were diagnosed before age 75, with an average age at the time of diagnosis being 81. The study also found Black people and women had the highest risk of developing dementia.