- modifying 18 risk factors over a person’s lifetime - could prevent 84 percent of global rates of stroke
- low and middle-income countries, over 80 percent of neurological deaths and health losses occur
New research shows that #neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s, #migraines, #stroke, and multiple sclerosis now account for 3.4 billion cases of ill health and disability worldwide.
According to the study, published in Lancet Neurology on Thursday, these neurological conditions affected 43 percent of the global population in 2021 and were responsible for 11 million deaths.
“The worldwide neurological burden is growing very fast and will put even more pressure on health systems in the coming decades,” said co-senior author Valery Feigin, the director of Auckland University’s National Institute for Stroke and Applied Neuroscience in New Zealand.
“Yet many current strategies for reducing neurological conditions have low effectiveness or are not sufficiently deployed, as is the case with some of the fastest-growing but largely preventable conditions like diabetic neuropathy and neonatal disorders. In a Thursday media release, he said that many other conditions are incurable, underscoring the need for greater investment and research into novel interventions.
The study, Global Burden of Disease, Injuries and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021, builds on previous versions to provide the “largest and most comprehensive analysis” of the prevalence and impact of nervous system disorders across countries worldwide from 1990 to 2021, it said. The analysis also broadened its scope by examining 37 neurological conditions, a substantial increase from the previous 15.
It found that the number of people living with or dying from neurological conditions such as dementia and meningitis has risen 18 percent over the last 30 years. The increase, the authors say, is largely due to an aging and growing population worldwide.
The top 10 contributors to neurological health loss in 2021 were stroke, brain injury, migraine, Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, diabetic neuropathy (nerve damage), meningitis, epilepsy, neurological complications from preterm birth, #autism spectrum disorder, and nervous system cancers.
Neurological consequences of #COVID-19 ranked number 20, accounting for 2.48 million years of healthy life lost in 2021.
The most prevalent neurological disorders in 2021 were tension-type headaches (around two billion cases) and migraines (about 1.1 billion cases). #Diabetic neuropathy is the fastest-growing of all neurological conditions, the study found.
In low and middle-income countries, over 80 percent of neurological deaths and health losses occur. A study found that high-income countries have 70 times more neurological professionals per 100,000 people than low and middle-income countries. This is largely due to disparities in access to treatment.
“This study should serve as an urgent call to action to scale up targeted interventions to allow the growing number of people living with neurological conditions to access the quality care, treatment and rehabilitation they need. It is more important than ever to ensure brain health is better understood, valued and protected, from early childhood to later life,” Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, said in a Thursday press release.
What’s next?
Understanding these risk factors is key to reducing the burden of some neurological disorders, the WHO says.
“Because many neurological conditions lack cures, and access to medical care is often limited, understanding modifiable risk factors and the potentially avoidable neurological condition burden is essential to help curb this global health crisis,” the Lancet study’s co-lead author, Dr. Katrin Seeher, a mental health specialist at WHO’s Brain Health Unit, said in a press release.
The study measured the proportion of nervous system burden that was potentially preventable by eliminating known risk factors for stroke, dementia, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, encephalitis, meningitis and intellectual disability.
The analysis suggested that modifying 18 risk factors over a person’s lifetime — most importantly high systolic blood pressure — could prevent 84 percent of global rates of stroke.
Additionally, it suggested that controlling lead exposure could reduce the burden of intellectual disability by 63 percent while reducing high fasting plasma glucose to normal levels could reduce the burden of dementia by around 15 percent.
