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. 2023 Jul;19(7):2898-2912.
doi: 10.1002/alz.12928. Epub 2023 Jan 13.

Prevalence of dementia in India: National and state estimates from a nationwide study

Jinkook Lee  1   2 , Erik Meijer  1 , Kenneth M Langa  3   4   5 , Mary Ganguli  6 , Mathew Varghese  7 , Joyita Banerjee  8 , Pranali Khobragade  1 , Marco Angrisani  1   2 , Ravi Kurup  9 , Sankha Shubhra Chakrabarti  10 , Indrajeet Singh Gambhir  10 , Parvaiz A Koul  11 , Debabrata Goswami  12 , Arunanshu Talukdar  13 , Rashmi Ranjan Mohanty  14 , Raju Sathyanarayana Yadati  15 , Mekala Padmaja  15 , Lalit Sankhe  16 , Chhaya Rajguru  16 , Monica Gupta  17 , Govind Kumar  18 , Minakshi Dhar  19 , Prasun Chatterjee  8 , Sunny Singhal  8 , Rishav Bansal  8 , Swati Bajpai  8 , Gaurav Desai  8 , Abhijith R Rao  8 , Palanimuthu T Sivakumar  7 , Krishna Prasad Muliyala  7 , Swaroop Bhatankar  20 , Aparajita Chattopadhyay  21 , Dipti Govil  21 , Sarang Pedgaonkar  21 , T V Sekher  21 , David E Bloom  22 , Eileen M Crimmins  23 , Aparajit Ballav Dey  8
Affiliations

Prevalence of dementia in India: National and state estimates from a nationwide study

Jinkook Lee et al. Alzheimers Dement. 2023 Jul.

Erratum in

Abstract

Introduction: Prior estimates of dementia prevalence in India were based on samples from selected communities, inadequately representing the national and state populations.

Methods: From the Longitudinal Aging Study in India (LASI) we recruited a sample of adults ages 60+ and administered a rich battery of neuropsychological tests and an informant interview in 2018 through 2020. We obtained a clinical consensus rating of dementia status for a subsample (N = 2528), fitted a logistic model for dementia status on this subsample, and then imputed dementia status for all other LASI respondents aged 60+ (N = 28,949).

Results: The estimated dementia prevalence for adults ages 60+ in India is 7.4%, with significant age and education gradients, sex and urban/rural differences, and cross-state variation.

Discussion: An estimated 8.8 million Indians older than 60 years have dementia. The burden of dementia cases is unevenly distributed across states and subpopulations and may therefore require different levels of local planning and support.

Highlights: The estimated dementia prevalence for adults ages 60+ in India is 7.4%. About 8.8 million Indians older than 60 years live with dementia. Dementia is more prevalent among females than males and in rural than urban areas. Significant cross-state variation exists in dementia prevalence.

Keywords: Alzheimer's disease and related dementia; Clinical Dementia Rating; cognitive impairment; dementia prevalence; major neurocognitive disorder.

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Conflict of interest statement

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

All authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest. Author disclosures are available in the supporting information.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Research design: Sampling frame and sample size for the Longitudinal Aging Study in India (LASI), the Harmonized Diagnostic Assessment of Dementia for LASI (LASI-DAD), and Clinical Consensus Study
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Age-specific dementia prevalence rates by sex, urbanity, and education. A, Mean age-specific dementia prevalence rate by sex (95% confidence interval [CI]). B, Mean age-specific dementia prevalence rate by education (95% CI)
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Age-standardized dementia prevalence among adults 60 years and older in the states of India, by (A) urban and (B) rural. Notes: No data for Sikkim; Delhi and Chandigarh are city-states that are completely urban. Age-standardized based on the World Health Organization reference age distribution for the period 2000–2025
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