Shocking Study Reveals How Long You May Live After Being Diagnosed with Dementia

Dementia is a devastating condition that often attacks people’s ability to think, learn, and remember. As it progresses, the cognitive decline damages the brain so much that it eventually affects areas that control vital functions like breathing and swallowing.

However, it has always been little known as to how long you may live after your diagnosis. According to new research, it could be as little as two years. Scientists say the life expectancy time frame after being diagnosed with dementia is between two and nine years.

While there are various factors that play an important role in contributing to your life expectancy, age plays a major part in this.

Experts led by academics from Erasmus MC University Medical Centre in the Netherlands that average survival after diagnosis was strongly dependent on age as men who are diagnosed at 65 years could expect to survive for 5.7 years, while those diagnosed when they were 85 could expect 2.2 years.

Women diagnosed at 65 years could expect to live up to 8.9 years, while those at 85 years could expect 4.5 years. However, according to experts, women have a shorter survival after diagnosis compared with men because women tend to be diagnosed later in life.

Experts said there are also differences over the continents, with those living in Asia expected to live for more than a year longer after their dementia diagnosis than those in Europe or the United States.

"About one-third of remaining life expectancy was lived in nursing homes, with more than half of people moving to a nursing home within five years after a dementia diagnosis," the authors wrote in the British Medical Journal.

According to studies, someone in the world develops dementia every three seconds. There are over 55 million people worldwide living with dementia and it is estimated that the number will almost double every 20 years, reaching 78 million in 2030 and 139 million in 2050.

Dementia is the leading cause of death across the world. And since there is no cure, the numbers are only expected to rise.

One common misbelief about memory loss is that it always means you or a loved one has dementia. There are many causes of memory loss. Memory loss alone doesn’t necessarily confirm a diagnosis of dementia.

It’s also true that some memory changes are normal as a person ages (some neurons in your brain naturally die as we age). However, this type of memory loss is not functionally disabling - meaning it does not interfere with daily life.

Dementia interferes with your ability to function. Dementia isn’t forgetting where you left your keys. A person with dementia can have situations like forgetting what keys are used for. Dementia isn’t a normal part of ageing.

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