001 WHERE IS DEMENTIA IN ENGLISH HEALTH POLICY?

A. Barker.Department of Health, London, UK

The title is intentionally ambiguous, to allow discussion of several themes:

Where can dementia policy be found? How far has policy on dementia developed, and where is it going? Why hasn’t it achieved a higher priority?

Such is the scope of dementia’s mental, physical, and social impact, that policy addressing its management necessarily includes diverse streams of work from various governmental departments. While spanning many priority areas therefore, it may also be said to suffer from lack of focus. Equally, policy cuts across organisational and professional boundaries, lending itself to huge opportunities for integrated working but providing equally large challenges to those responsible for implementation.

This presentation will place dementia policy in the context of national health and social care policy, explore some strengths and weaknesses of its current position, and give a personal view from a Department of Health (England) advisor of progress over the last few years and its likely future direction.

002 EPIDEMIOLOGY OF DEMENTIA

A. Hofman.Erasmus Medical Centre, Dept of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, 3000 DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands

This presentation will address the frequency and risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. The prevalence of dementia increases strongly with age, from about 1% at age 65 years to at least 30% at the age of ⩾85 years. Alzheimer’s disease accounts for about two-thirds of all dementia cases. The prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease is higher in women than in men. Our findings suggest that currently about 2 500 000 men and 3 000 000 women living in the European Union suffer from dementia. The incidence of dementia also increases markedly with age, from about 1 per 1000 person years at the age of 65 years to about 10 per 1000 person years at the age of ⩾85 years. There is evidence that northwest Europe …