Alzheimer, accidents vasculaires cérébraux, migraines… These disorders have increased by over half since 1990, now surpassing cardiovascular problems as a cause of poor health.
Neurological disorders, such as Alzheimer’s dementia, migraines, or those resulting from strokes, are now the leading cause of global health problems, according to a vast study published on Friday, March 15. According to this work published in The Lancet Neurology, it is no longer cardiovascular diseases, but neurological diseases in the broadest sense that cause the most damage to living individuals.
In 2021, 43% of the world’s population – 3.4 billion people – were affected by neurological disorders, according to a study conducted by hundreds of researchers under the auspices of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), a reference body. for health statistics. This rate would be much higher than current estimates and would indicate that these disorders have increased by more than half since 1990. Researchers attribute this in part to the aging of the population, especially since most neurological disorders are incurable and therefore potentially survive for years until death.
Stroke is by far the most frequent cause of disability and health problems. According to research, this has caused the entire population to lose 160 million years of healthy life – an indicator that should go beyond life expectancy to take into account the actual situation in societies around the world. Neonatal encephalopathy, a form of pathology that, as its name suggests, affects the child from birth, Alzheimer’s dementia, and neurological consequences of diabetes follow. Meningitis and epilepsy then come. The neurological side effects of Covid, which are an aspect of Long Covid, rank twentieth.
In terms of deaths, neurological problems killed more than eleven million people in 2021, according to the study. Here we remain below the toll of cardiovascular diseases – 19.8 million – which often become fatal more quickly.