Dementia in India
In India there are more than 4 million people who have some form of dementia as compared to 44 million in the whole world.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of dementia, a term for conditions that occur when the brain no longer functions properly.
People tend not to read about illnesses which do not affect them. Only when a family member is affected they are are likely to read voraciously connected with dementia. Many of these articles are not relevant to these individuals.
The newspapers in India have a mixed baggage of literature on dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
A detailed analysis of 3 English newspapers and 3 Hindi newspapers by Swapna Kishore showed that Hindi newspapers had a far lower percentage of articles on dementia than English newspapers.
Descriptions like memory-loss, age-related, cognitive decline, cognitive impairment, neurodegenerative disease do not inform lay persons what they mean and how dementia or Alzheimer’s disease symptoms may be similar to or different from old age.
#oldage,#dementia,#alzheimer’s disease,#India
Bakul Kumar 