1. Introduction - Challenges and Strategies for Managing Dementia in Older Adults
Dementia has been considered a most necessary medical term that means loss of memory. In that case, people are unable to solve any problem quickly, as well as lose their critical thinking abilities. In recent years, dementia or loss of memory problems have been seen among the elderly people gradually. In this present research study, there is a brief discussion about older people living with dementia in the United Kingdom. Losing memory or dementia is a very common problem among the elderly, and it becomes a more serious issue gradually day by day. Despite taking medicine, they can follow such suitable steps for reducing the memory loss problem. This present research study also sheds light on such a critical matter to find out the underlying challenges of dementia during old age by providing such mitigating factors to overcome this problem.
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As per the view of Corven et al. 2021, it has stated that people living with dementia-related problems mainly experience a much greater level of memory loss due to the significant loss of some essential neurons with increasing age. Major problems of dementia, which have generally occurred among old-aged people, include experiencing greater memory loss problems, creating confusion, as well as decreasing judgment ability day by day. Along with that, several kinds of speaking difficulties, along with reading and writing problems,s can create an invisible barrier to the older person for a better level of survival. In addition, the presence of poor expressing thoughts in older persons living with dementia becomes a more generic problem across the world.
As stated by Mirheidari et al. (2019), Older people with severe dementia fail to recognize the familiar neighborhood, along with asking the same questions repeatedly, can create greater turbulence for their family members. Old age group people also face lots of challenges in handling money due to poor recall ability. Moreover, older people living with dementia have taken a long time to complete their daily activities. Apart from that, most of the time they are suffering from hallucinating problems that are responsible for acting impulsively (Bunn & Hooper, 2019). Sometimes, using such unusual words, old aged people surviving severe dementia-related problems can create issues in finding out the exact familiar objects.
According to Fonseca et al. (2020), it has been suggested that millions of people across the world have been suffering from dementia or memory loss problems. It has commonly been observed that growing older people in the age group 85 or above have been affected by dementia. This is not a disease that is a normal part of aging, but in recent times, it has become a generic issue among older people without overcoming the specific factor. There are several types of dementia problems, among them Alzheimer's disease is a very common issue that causes dementia in the elderly, especially 90+.
Figure 1: Worldwide prevalence of dementia among the elderly over 65 years
The above infographic shows the worldwide dementia prevalence rate among older people over 65 years in 2019. As per the statistical report, in 2019 it was found that 8.5% of the elderly in the Europe region had been suffering from dementia-related problems. Compared with the Europe region, only 4% of older people in the Southeast Asia region had the problem of dementia ( Statista.com, 2022).
3. Prevalence of Dementia among older people in the United Kingdom
Figure 2: Number of people living with dementia in the United Kingdom
It has been reflected in the dementia prevalence report of the United Kingdom that among 100 old people, 65 to 69 old people have suffered from dementia-related problems. In addition, these before-mentioned figures have gradually risen for older people with age 85 to 89 (Dementiastatistics.org, 2023).
Figure 3: Both the percentage of males and females in the older age group with dementia in the UK
The above image shows the percentage of both males and females of the older population in the United Kingdom living with dementia or memory loss-related problems. It has been reflected that females in the age group of 95+ mainly suffered from dementia as compared with male older people in the same age group (Dementiastatistics.org, 2023). The percentage of dementia problems has increased gradually by enhancing the age of both male and female old aged groups in the United Kingdom.
Figure 4: Number of UK-based old-aged people with dementia from 2012 to 2051
Based on the above statistical infographic in the United Kingdom, the percentage of older people living with dementia has significantly increased from 2012 to 2051 (Dementiastatistics.org, 2023). Moreover, it has been seen that dementia among the elderly people will become more serious in the coming future throughout the world.
The report from the statistical research department has focused on the number of individuals who are living with dementia or memory loss problems in the United Kingdom in 2014. It had been observed that among over 815.8 thousand people in the United Kingdom with dementia-related problems, 685.8 thousand people in the UK were from England (Statista.com, 2014).
4. Causes of Dementia
As proposed by Wittenberg et al. 2019, Dementia or memory loss is a very difficult issue that is responsible for losing the normal healthy brain capacity to several rustic changes that damage the neurons as well as various nerve cells. Damaging of several kinds of motor, as well as sensory neurons, can cause the sudden stop of nerve connection due to the severe effect of dementia. Several researchers have paid special attention to examining the connected rapid changes in the brain for maintaining the balance of individual recalling capacity (Arvanitakis, Shah & Bennett, 2019). Renowned researchers have critically investigated to find out the actual underlying problems which are responsible for causing several brain connection changes among people living with dementia. It has been identified that a few people throughout the world have suffered from dementia or memory loss due to rare genetic variants.
5. Types of Dementia
There are so many neurodegenerative factors as well as disorders that have contributed to several kinds of dementia-related problems among the elderly people across the world. Dementia is responsible for the occurrence of progressive and irreversible severe damage of neurons that causes poor brain functioning. Different kinds of dementia include ‘Alzheimer's disease, Lewy body dementia, Frontotemporal dementia, as well as mixed dementia, and Vascular dementia’ (Wittenberg et al. 2019). As stated by Livingston et al. (2020), the presence of Alzheimer’s disease among the elderly is mainly responsible for the occurrence of common dementia problems. The percentage of dementia-affected older persons has been raised in the United Kingdom gradually rather than the dementia report of the previous years.
This is the most common diagnosis of dementia type, which generally occurs among older people in the United Kingdom in both males and females. In the case of Alzheimer's disease-related dementia, older people suffer from several remarkable changes in brain functioning. In addition, it has generally been seen that abnormal build-up of protein, which is known as amyloid plaques, is responsible for nerve damage as well as minimizing the entire brain functioning capacity (Padala, Jendro & Orr, 2020). As suggested by Law et al. (2020), the main cause of Alzheimer’s dementia is the shrinkage of the normal brain size as well as brain cells, which leads to eventual death conditions. In this dementia condition, a severe level of brain disorder happens, which is responsible for slowly destroying older people’s memory as well as rapidly decreasing their individual thinking skills.
Lewy body dementia
Lewy body dementia is a rare type of memory loss problem that generally occurs among the older age group of people. The main cause of associating this kind of dementia problem among people is due to the abnormal formation of the protein. Abnormal deposition of alpha-synuclein protein in the brain causes Lewy body dementia (Taylor et al. 2020). Major signs of Lewy body dementia are an excessive amount of visual hallucinations, proper body movement disorder, sleeping disturbance, apathy, depression, as well as several cognitive problems. Along with that, poor regulation of body function has a significant impact on the autonomic nervous system and provides severe challenges to people getting excessive memory loss issues (Hansen et al. 2019).
Frontotemporal dementia
It is a very uncommon type of dementia that generally occurs among people in the age group of below 60 due to abnormal formation of TDP-43 as well as protein tau. In the case of frontotemporal dementia, it has been observed that people are generally affected by behavior along with ineffective language-based problems. Frontotemporal dementia mainly affects the front as well as the side part of the brain by damaging the brain cells. The first sign of frontotemporal dementia is antisocial or unusual behaviors with others along with loss of speech (Greaves & Rohrer, 2019). People with severe frontotemporal dementia survive not more than six to eight years.
Mixed dementia
As stated by Minoshima et al. (2022), Mixed dementia has been considered as a combination of two or more types of dementia that affects the old age group of people based on autopsy studies. Depending on various types of dementia-related research, researchers have come to the point that severe combinations of brain changes are responsible for associating the several forms of dementia.
Vascular dementia
Vascular dementia is a specific type of dementia that is caused by severe damage to blood vessels. Severe damage to the blood vessel causes sudden interruption of normal blood flow to the brain. It has a negative impact on the normal oxygen supply of the brain and is responsible for causing severe brain loss. People with vascular dementia generally survive around five years after the diagnosis of the specific problems (Wolters & Ikram, 2019). As propounded by Impellizzeri et al. (2022), most people living with vascular dementia have mainly suffered from several changes in proper brain functioning capabilities. These include problems with effective planning and reasoning ability, poor judgmental power, as well as slowing of the entire thought process. Impaired blood flow due to the severe damage to brain blood vessels has created extra pressure to maintain the balance of brain capacity.
6. Different policies are taken by the UK government to manage older people living with dementia
The government of the United Kingdom has taken such adverse mitigating steps for the rapid overcoming of several dementia-related problems. These necessary steps include a proper assessment of dementia-related cases, effective implementation of management strategic plans, as well as providing extensive support to those older people who are living with dementia (Cahill, 2020). Along with that, the positive incorporation of effective care for dementia patients helps to improve their condition by slowly returning to the old memories as well as brain functioning.
Old age group people with dementia could lose their normal brain capacity along with becoming unable to take the right decision-making process. In that case, the governing body of the United Kingdom has adopted a necessary law based on The Mental Capacity Act to protect the people, especially the older age group people from England who are suffering from a lack of mental capacity for any kind of decision-making (Gov.uk, 2022).
The government of the United Kingdom has paid special attention to the development of frontline healthcare and medical professionals by providing suitable training sessions to overcome dementia-related problems among older people living with severe dementia. Effective implementation of the ‘Well pathway of dementia’ by NHS England plays a remarkable role in supporting frontline healthcare professionals in diagnosing as well as preventing dementia well. The UK government has proposed forming a ‘Health and Well-being board’ for addressing the dementia problems among the older age group people locally. Effective incorporation of such beneficial policy helps to reduce the risk of dementia among the older person. These include ‘Joint Strategic Needs Assessment, Action plan strategy, Health, and Well-being strategy, as well as Local commissioning plans’(Gov.uk, 2022).
It has reflected the entire research study based on Dementia that the government of the United Kingdom plays a key role in encouraging healthcare as well as medical professionals to complete 'e-learning or training sessions’ to better understand dementia-related problems among the UK-based old age groups. Successful completion of this e-learning and training session helps the frontline health and care professional to be a Dementia friend. Active involvement of ‘The Dementia Intelligence Network’ plays a significant role in accumulating data about dementia for rapid identification of dementia risk factors, especially among the older age group people in the United Kingdom.
Figure 5: Effectiveness of Dementia prevention policy by the UK Government in 2021
The above image reflects the effectiveness of the index grading dementia policy taken by the government of the United Kingdom to mitigate the underlying challenges of dementia or memory loss among the older age group of people. Dementia's strategy, along with commitment, has rated 77 scores out of 100 (Statista.com, 2022). On the other hand, awareness and monitoring dementia policy as well as care standards and setting has achieved a middle-rated score which is well. Apart from that, access to medical care along with early detection and diagnosis have received lower grading points than the rest of the policies which are adopted by the government of the United Kingdom in 2021 (Statista.com, 2022).
7. Risks associated with poor maintenance of dementia
As stated by Kivipelto et al. 2020, effective changes of such most crucial risk factors can minimize dementia problems, including a healthy diet as well as effective brain exercise. Sufficient eating of anti-oxidant-rich fruits along with green leafy vegetables helps to nourish the brain for better mental growth and development. Incorporation of the effluent amount of anti-oxidant-containing fruits plays a remarkable role in reducing the brain’s oxidative status for getting effective brain functioning. Sometimes, severe vitamin B3 or niacin deficiency can act as a major risk factor for brain damage. In that case, niacin enriches fruits and vegetables and can play a positive role in rejuvenating the brain as well as nerve cells to keep the entire nervous system active (Kuo et al. 2019). Sufficient intake of Tryptophan, an essential amino acid, helps to enhance brain activity by reducing mental stress.
Lack of mental exercise along with insufficient healthy and nutritious food intake is responsible for the risk of dementia. Excessive consumption of alcohol on a regular basis is considered an important risk factor for increasing the chance of dementia. The presence of depression, low level of cognitive engagement, excessive smoking, poor sleeping practice, as well as head trauma for a prolonged time, has acted as a major risk factor for associating dementia among older adults in the United Kingdom (Kim et al. 2020).
8. Possible improvement strategies
Entire research on dementia has shown that the government of the UK encourages healthcare providers and medical professionals to participate in "e-learning or training sessions" to better understand dementia-related issues among older people in the UK. The frontline health and care professional can become a dementia friend if they successfully complete this e-learning and training session. The "Dementia Intelligence Network" actively participates in the collection of data on dementia for the purpose of rapidly identifying dementia risk factors, particularly among the elderly population in the United Kingdom.
For the purpose of rapidly resolving a number of issues related to dementia, the government of the United Kingdom has taken such adverse mitigation measures. The proper evaluation of dementia-related cases, the efficient implementation of management strategic plans, and extensive support for older people living with dementia is all necessary steps (Livingston et al. 2020). In addition, the positive integration of efficient care for dementia patients aids in the improvement of their condition by gradually restoring old memories and brain function. However, different possible strategies to control dementia include;
Include exercise in daily work schedule: In case of managing dementia, exercise plays an essential role in managing anger and stress levels. On the other hand, old people need to include daily exercise habits within their daily schedule to reduce the risk of dementia (Cahill, 2020). A specific form of dementia known as vascular dementia is brought on by severe damage to blood vessels. The brain's normal blood flow is suddenly disrupted when a blood vessel sustains severe damage.
Improve social engagement: Improving engagement with social functions could help to reduce the risk of dementia among the older population. The government of the UK could focus on old-age activities to reduce the risks related to dementia. It has a negative effect on the brain's normal oxygen supply and is to blame for severe brain loss (Kivipelto et al. 2020). After being diagnosed with the particular issues, vascular dementia patients typically live for about five years.
Manage stress: Stress is the main risk factor for maintaining dementia, which could vastly affect the old people. According to Kim et al. (2020), the majority of people with vascular dementia have primarily experienced a number of changes in their ability to properly function their brains. These include issues with effective planning and reasoning, poor judgment, and a slowed thought process as a whole. Due to the severe damage to the brain blood vessels, decreased blood flow has increased pressure to maintain brain capacity balance.
9. Conclusion
It has been concluded from the above discussion that dementia or losing memory becomes a life-threatening problem among the elderly group people in the United Kingdom. This present research study has focused on identifying the key risk factors that are responsible for the poor maintenance of dementia-related problems. The overview part of the present research topic has highlighted the percentage of the old age group people who are living with dementia. The incorporation of several statistical info graphics helps to enrich the research quality by providing informative data based on dementia’s prevalence rate in the United Kingdom. On the other hand, this present research study has enlightened such suitable as well as effective policy adoption for overcoming the problems of Dementia among the UK-based old age group people.
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