The health condition people now fear more than cancer
Britain’s biggest health fear is no longer cancer, according to latest research.
According to Home Instead, approximately 31 percent of family caregivers fear dementia; This is a 4 percent increase over last year; Concerns about cancer dropped from 30 percent to 21 percent over the same period.
The home care provider surveyed 4,000 people, including 1,600 family caregivers, over the course of a year in a study tracking the nation’s sentiments about aging and caregiving.
According to the research, almost two-thirds (63 per cent) of respondents called for the government to declare dementia a health emergency due to the increasing toll the disease takes on families. Almost 90 per cent of carers claimed a special dementia allowance to help fund care.
Home Instead CEO Martin Jones said: “Dementia has now eclipsed cancer as our biggest health fear for the future. Unlike cancer, where decades of research have changed perceptions and outcomes of care, dementia appears to be a greater threat – a condition with no apparent cure.”
While cancer remains the leading cause of death in the UK and almost one in two Brits will be diagnosed with cancer in our lifetimes, scientists continue to make progress in treating and curing cancer.
According to Cancer Research UK, cancer survival rates in the UK have doubled in the last 50 years. Dementia, meanwhile, remains incurable and, according to the Alzheimer’s Association, someone in the UK develops it every three minutes.
David Thomas, from Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: Telegram: “We are at a turning point for dementia research, but we need the government to be more assertive in tackling the UK’s biggest killer.
“Blood tests for Alzheimer’s are being trialled in parts of the NHS, and more new drugs are being investigated than ever before. These innovations have the potential to help us really get dementia under control and make the kind of progress we’ve seen in other diseases such as stroke and cancer.”
Because dementia is caused by different diseases, it is unlikely there will be a single treatment, according to the NHS website.
“Massive advances have been made in understanding how different diseases cause damage to the brain and therefore produce dementia. And with increased funding over the last few years, many more research studies and clinical trials are now being conducted,” a statement on the website said.
“Although a cure is several years away, there are some very promising advances.”
Last October, donanemab, a drug that can slow the decline in memory and thinking skills of people with early Alzheimer’s disease, was licensed as a specialized treatment in the United Kingdom.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published its final guidance; here it continues to recommend that donanemab should not be provided through the NHS because it does not meet the cost-effectiveness threshold.
