Has dementia plateaued in the US? Mysterious CDC data cast doubt on predictions of spiralling diagnoses READ MORE: Alzheimer's patients reversed disease with simple changes By Cassidy Morrison Senior Health Reporter For Dailymail.Com Published: 13:43, 15 June 2024 | Updated: 13:48, 15 June 2024 e-mail 3 View comments Rates of dementia in the US appear to have hit a plateau — casting doubt on previous predictions of spiralling diagnoses in the years to come. The CDC ’s latest National Health Interview Survey reported that four percent of American seniors over 65 have dementia, a figure that is largely unchanged since the last poll in 2019.
The figure is lower than the rates of seniors who have other chronic conditions, such as heart disease, which is suffered by 14 percent of those aged 65-74, and cancer , which is prevalent in the lifetimes of 17 percent of the age group. The data suggests prior dire predictions that diagnoses will be up to 14 million by 2060 — driven partly by the US' increasingly aging popular — may be an overestimate. The above pie chart was created from data from Rajan et al.
The percentages do not total 100 due to rounding The survey covered more than 9,200 people 65 and older, asking them either over the phone or in person whether they had ever been given a diagnosis of dementia, including the most common type, Alzheimer's disease. The CDC researchers interviewed people from all walks of life, taking into account race, education level, family in.