Dementia is a growing public health challenge in India. A 2023 study estimated that 7.4% of adults aged 60 and older, almost 9 million people, are currently living with dementia in India. In addition to the human toll, the economic burden is substantial. Dementia costs the economy over $3bn, a figure expected to rise steeply in the years ahead. For households, the annual cost attributable to dementia represents nearly one-fifth of typical household health expenditure in India.
The scale of the dementia challenge in India is immense — and so too is its complexity. The country's vast economic, linguistic, educational, and genetic diversity, coupled with wide disparities in social determinants of health and many health pressures, makes policy advancement and implementation particularly challenging. Effectively addressing dementia will require approaches tailored to the country’s unique demographic and social landscape.
We are making advances in the development of treatments — for the first time in the history of these diseases we now have disease modifying treatments. A diagnostic revolution is underway which will completely transform the way patients are diagnosed in the years ahead. We are beginning to identify effective strategies to prevent dementia, and shaping public policy interventions to support these efforts.
But globally, the burden of dementia is shifting. By 2050, over 75% of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias are expected to occur in low- and middle-income countries. Yet much of the science, most clinical trials and public health research has been conducted in high-income countries. This creates both a challenge and an imperative — to shift globally the focus of dementia research but also to develop evidence and policies that reflect the realities of LMIC contexts like India.
In that context, the global community plays a vital role in sharing knowledge and insights to enhance our understanding of dementia and drive progress in public policy.
The World Dementia Council is convening three meetings, two virtually, and one in person at the Cognitive Neurology Association Annual Conference exploring these themes. The objective of this series is to build a shared understanding among policy experts on how to make public policy advances to address the challenges of dementia in India.
Suvarna Alladi Professor of Neurology, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bangalore, India
Lenny Shallcross Executive Director World Dementia Council
