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   Dementia-related deaths jump 7 pc in Britain   
   Dementia and Alzheimer's disease biggest causes of death among women, Office   
   for National Statistics figures find   
      
      
      
   Poor care at homes leads to thousand of elderly being admitted to hospital   
   Mortality figures have been released by the Office for National Statistics    
      
   By John Bingham, Social and Religious Affairs    
   Editor   
   11:39AM GMT 29 Oct 2014   
      
      
      
      
      
   The scale of Britain's dementia crisis is exposed in official figures showing   
   that the number of deaths in which it was the underlying cause jumped by seven   
   per cent in a single year.   
      
   Dementia and Alzheimer's disease are now the biggest cause of death among   
   women and ranked third after heart disease and cancer for men.   
      
   New figures from the Office for National Statistics show that dementia was the   
   underlying cause in one in eight female deaths and one in 16 among men,   
   although the gap between the genders is narrowing.   
      
   Overall dementia-related conditions were responsible for 47,112 deaths   
   registered in England and Wales last year, an increase of seven per cent on   
   2012.   
      
   The figures from the Office for National Statistics show that the total number   
   of deaths in England and Wales last year edged 1.5 per cent higher to 506,790   
   - the first time it has topped 500,000 for six years.   
      
      
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   Despite the rise in the total number, the death rate as a proportion of the   
   total population has fallen by around a fifth in the last decade as people   
   live longer.   
      
   Although women traditionally live longer than men, the figures provide further   
   evidence that men are gradually narrowing the gap as a result of changes in   
   lifestyles in recent decades.   
      
   The age standardised death rate fell by 19 per cent in the last decade among   
   women, but 22 per cent among men.   
      
   During that time, the death rate from circulatory diseases almost halved for   
   both men and women.   
      
   But the proportion of men dying as a result of dementia related conditions   
   trebled from just two per cent to 6.2 per cent. Meanwhile among women it more   
   than doubled from 4.7 per cent of deaths to 12.2 per cent.   
   Gavin Terry, policy manager at the Alzheimer's Society said: "With 225,000   
   people developing dementia every year and numbers set to soar, dementia is one   
   of the biggest health and social care challenges the UK faces.   
      
   "For too long dementia has been wrongly seen by many clinicians as a natural   
   part of ageing and, as such, have failed to record it as a cause of death.   
   Increasing awareness of the condition has started to combat this, and these   
   figures are likely to be a    
   product of that.   
      
   "We often hear of people with dementia not dying in the manner they want to.   
   Staff working with people with dementia who might be nearing the end of their   
   lives need to receive specific training so they can provide the best care   
   possible and support    
   those with dementia to die with dignity."   
   Hilary Evans, director of external affairs for Alzheimer's Research UK, said:   
   "Age is the biggest risk factor for dementia, and with women living longer   
   than men, we would expect to see this reflected in cause of death. Sadly,   
   about half a million women    
   in the UK are living with dementia.   
      
   "The figures highlight dementia as a huge problem that we cannot shy away from   
   any longer. Encouragingly, the statistics reveal that other health conditions,   
   such as heart disease, are beginning to be tamed and this has come about due   
   to improved    
   research into treatment, prevention and better public health.   
   "We must now turn our attentions to dementia - our greatest health challenge -   
   and invest in research that will drive better prevention and treatment of the   
   condition."   
      
   The ONS said in a commentary that part of the increase could be the result of   
   different ways of recording and categorising causes of death but that it was   
   also a trend clearly linked to the ageing population.   
      
   "Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia. Deaths from   
   dementia and Alzheimer's disease are increasing as people live longer, with   
   women living longer than men," it explained.   
      
   "Some of the rise over the last few decades may also be attributable to a   
   better understanding of dementia."   
      
   Professor Peter Weissberg, medical director at the British Heart Foundation,   
   said: "These figures show that coronary heart disease is still the single   
   biggest killer and continues to blight the lives of thousands of people and   
   families.   
   "We've made great pr   
   ogress over the last 50 years but we still need to fund much more research to   
   stop people dying needlessly, and to help the increasing number of people   
   living with heart disease.   
      
   "The UK has committed to reducing premature deaths from cardiovascular disease   
   by a quarter by 2025 and it will only meet this target if the Government and   
   health service make health prevention a priority."   
      
      
   http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/elderhealth/11195059/New-figur   
   s-show-Britains-dementia-crisis.html   
      
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