Prevalence of dementia in India: A systematic review and meta-analysis

There are rich state-based epidemiological evidences on dementia in India, which shows that neurodegenerative disorders are one of the major public health problems. However, inconsistencies and variability have been observed among the findings of most of the reported studies.

This meta-analysis was conducted to estimate the overall prevalence of dementia in India.

Databases of several web sources, namely EBSCOhost, PubMed, PsycINFO, and Google Scholar were explored for searching the studies that had previously observed the prevalence of dementia in India. Retrieved articles were systematically selected using specific inclusion and exclusion criteria. The quality of the included studies was assessed through guidelines of strengthening the reporting of observational studies in epidemiology, and the risk of bias was assessed using the guidelines of Quality in Prognosis Studies. Meta-analysis was computed using R software (3.5.3) with "metaphor" package.

The present meta-analysis included 20 epidemiological studies consisting of 86,312 persons, out of which a total number of 1193 persons reported to have dementia across several states of India. The results of the meta-analysis indicated the number of elderly that suffer from dementia amounts to 20 per 1000 population (95% confidence interval: 0.02-0.03). The prevalence was higher in older age groups (75 years and above) as compared to those below 75 years of age. However, the prevalence rates were similar for males and females and rural and urban population.

Dementia is a common neuropsychiatric condition in the Indian elderly population. Further, evidence-based national survey is needed to estimate the exact prevalence of the disease in the country.