Deaths from dementia have increased but population has more years of good health, says PHE report

Since 2000, the population in England has been living longer and spending more years in good health, according to a new report
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combining Public Health England data and knowledge on the health of the population in England in 2017.

But deaths from dementia and Alzheimer’s disease have increased by 60% in males and have doubled in females, the figures revealed, although this is partly because the population is ageing and there is an increased awareness of dementia.

In 2015, dementia and Alzheimer’s were the most common causes of female deaths, followed by heart disease. For men, the leading cause of death was heart disease, followed by dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. For both males and females over 80 years, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease was the leading cause of death.

Matthew Norton, director of policy at Alzheimer’s Research UK, said the figures emphasised the desperate need for life-changing treatments for dementia and for dementia research to remain a national priority.

“Investing in research is the only way we can defeat dementia, so the momentum we have built in recent years must continue,” he says.

“At Alzheimer’s Research UK, we have committed to finding a life-changing treatment by 2025 but we cannot do this alone, and it will be crucial for government to continue its focus on dementia research.”

Provisional data for 2016 show that life expectancy at birth has now reached 79.5 years for males and 83.1 years for females. However, females are apparently spending more years in poor health than males — females lived 3.6 years longer than males in 2013 to 2015 but had only 0.7 years longer in healthy life.

Smoking, alcohol consumption and high body mass index continue to contribute significantly to morbidity in England, although the prevalence of smoking has declined from 19.3% to 15.5% in the last 4 years. Long-term exposure to particulate air pollution was highlighted to have an effect on mortality equivalent to 25,000 deaths a year.

The report also identified the increasing use of antibiotics as a major driver in the development of antibiotic-resistant infections. Although it highlights that antibiotic consumption fell across all healthcare settings for the first time in the financial year 2014 to 2015 in England.