Alzheimer’s Awareness Month

Approximately 750,000 Canadians are living with Alzheimer's disease or another form of dementia. Alzheimer’s disease alone was identified as the ninth leading cause of all deaths in Canada in 2022. Like the affliction itself, which has no known cause or cure, the data surrounding Alzheimer’s disease can be a bit mystifying.

Deaths attributable to Alzheimer’s disease are declining

Alzheimer’s disease is most prevalent among people aged 65 and older. Furthermore, according to the Canadian Vital Statistics - Deaths Database, nearly two-thirds (65.5%) of all deaths due to Alzheimer’s disease occur among Canadians aged 85 and older.

Given Canada’s rapidly aging population, one might suspect that deaths attributable to this affliction are rising. In fact, the prevalence of deaths due to Alzheimer’s disease began trending downwards before the arrival of COVID-19. There were 6,683 deaths due to Alzheimer’s disease in 2017, but that number decreased in each of the following years to 5,413 deaths in 2022.

For Alzheimer’s disease, the age-standardized mortality rate (ASMR), which removes the effects of differences in the age structure of a population over time, declined by almost one-quarter (23.0%) from 2017 to 2022. 

In 2019, the ASMR for Alzheimer’s disease (16.4 deaths per 100,000 people) was at its lowest level since 2000.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the ASMR for Alzheimer’s disease declined further, falling from 15.2 deaths per 100,000 people in 2020 to 13.9 in 2022.

Deaths due to dementia over triples from 2000 to 2022

Alas, the recent decline in the ASMR for Alzheimer’s disease has been more than offset by a spike in dementia deaths.

One of the reasons for this drop in Alzheimer’s disease deaths may be attributable to how doctors report the cause of death.

Determining the cause of dementia is especially difficult in advanced cases, and one of the challenges in understanding dementia is that it comes in many forms.

The number of deaths due to all types of dementia rose more than threefold, from 4,557 deaths in 2000 to 25,994 deaths in 2022.

Over this period, the ASMR for Alzheimer’s disease and dementia combined increased by 52.0%, rising from 20,4 deaths per 100,000 people to 52,9 deaths per 100,000 people.

Canadians afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia were particularly hard hit by COVID-19

Understanding the full extent of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia in Canada was further complicated by the onset of the pandemic in early 2020.

Among the Canadians who died of COVID-19 during the early stages of the pandemic, almost one-third of those aged 65 to 84 (31.0%) and nearly half (46.0%) of those aged 85 and older had Alzheimer’s disease or dementia reported as a comorbidity, that is, an underlying but not a direct cause of death.

Canadians with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia remain among the most vulnerable

The data are very clear: Canadians afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia are among the most vulnerable.

Deaths due to Alzheimer’s disease and dementia tend to occur among those of advanced age. The median age at death attributable to Alzheimer’s disease or dementia was 89.5 years in 2022.

Because of their longer life expectancy, women are more likely to contract Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia than men, and they are twice as likely to die from these. 

In 2022, the ASMR for women dying of dementia or Alzheimer’s disease stood at 86.1 deaths per 100,000 women compared with 42.0 deaths per 100,000 men.

Digging deeper into the data to provide a clearer picture of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia in Canada

While there remains no known cure for Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, we are digging deeper into the data to provide a clearer picture of these afflictions. Results of the study will be published in the spring of 2024.