Dementia has a significant impact on patients and those around them. Due to the aging population, the burden of disease due to dementia will increase. The Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport has asked the Health Council for advice on counteracting this expected increase. A committee of dementia experts of the Health Council has examined ways to diagnose dementia at an early stage, and at ways to reduce the risk of dementia.
According to the committee it is not yet possible to reduce the dementia burden through early diagnosis. The available methods of early diagnosis, especially biomarker tests, are not reliable enough to be widely used outside specialist care settings. Moreover, no effective therapeutic treatment is available to stop or slow down the disease process in the event of early diagnosis.
The committee advises to focus mainly on measures that can reduce the risk of developing dementia by targeting modifiable risk factors. In the scientific literature, a large number of factors have been identified that are likely to increase the risk of dementia, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, smoking and obesity. The committee recommends strengthening and broadening existing measures for the prevention of other chronic diseases with the same risk factors, such as cardiovascular diseases.