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Abstract
[...]a substantial increase in long-term funding for multidisciplinary research programmes is absolutely essential to reduce the burden of individual suffering and the enormous societal cost of AD. In 2015, almost 47 million people worldwide were estimated to be affected by dementia, and the numbers are expected to reach 75 million by 2030, and 131 million by 2050, with the greatest increase expected in low-income and middle-income countries.2 In 2012 and 2015, the World Health Organization (WHO) presented reports in which it acknowledged this trend--sometimes described in terms of a fast-growing epidemic--and concluded that AD and other dementias should be regarded as a global public health priority.3,4 Similar policy declarations have been made by the European Union5 (EU) and by some individual countries. Care for people with dementia is provided by several sectors in society, with the social-care (long-term care and home services) and informal-care (provided by non-professional caregivers) sectors accounting for the greatest proportion of costs--even greater than the cost of direct medical care.6 In cost-of-illness studies, total societal cost estimates for dementia in Europe in 2010 were between $238·6 billion6 and [euro]105·6 billion.7 The economic costs of caring for a growing number of people with AD and other dementias are formidable, but the combined economic and societal burden of dementia is more daunting still, corresponding to the aggregate burden of people with dementia and their next of kin.