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The Age of Onset of Dementias

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Age of Onset of Mental Disorders

Abstract

In this chapter we estimate the age of onset (AOO) of dementias in Germany, India and the USA. We analytically show how the AOO depends on the age distribution of the considered population, the age-specific incidence rate and the age-specific prevalence of dementia. This implies that, the AOO is tightly connected with the illness–death model from epidemiology. Despite the considerably different age distributions in Germany, India and the USA, the median AOO of dementias ranges from 77 to 84 years of age in the three countries. On average, men are affected 2-3 years earlier than women. In addition, we demonstrate how the AOO of dementias will change in Germany during the years 2000–2040. While the mean AOO of dementia in the year 2000 is 78.9 and 82.2 years for German men and women, respectively, in the year 2040 the mean AOO is predicted to increase to 82.0 and 83.8 years in men and women, respectively.

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Author notes

  1. All authors contributed equally to this chapter.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Kassenärztliche Vereinigung Nordrhein, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Sandra Landwehr

  2. Hiller Research Unit for Rheumatology, Medical Faculty of the University Hospital Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Ralph Brinks

  3. Institute for Biometry and Epidemiology, German Diabetes Center, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Ralph Brinks & Annika Hoyer

Authors
  1. Sandra Landwehr
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  2. Ralph Brinks
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  3. Annika Hoyer
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sandra Landwehr .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Unit of Psychiatric Epidemiology and Evaluation, IRCCS St John of God Clinical Research Center, Brescia, Italy

    Giovanni de Girolamo

  2. Orygen The National Centre of Excellence, University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Patrick D. McGorry

  3. Association for the Improvement of Mental Health Programmes, Geneva, Switzerland

    Norman Sartorius

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Landwehr, S., Brinks, R., Hoyer, A. (2019). The Age of Onset of Dementias. In: de Girolamo, G., McGorry, P., Sartorius, N. (eds) Age of Onset of Mental Disorders. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72619-9_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72619-9_13

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-72619-9

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