Dementia and Alzheimer's Disease Prevalence in Bulgaria During 2018: Nationally Representative Study

This paper presents data analysis of a large dataset of outpatient records for the purpose of establishing accurate prevalence rates of dementia and Alzheimer's disease in Bulgaria. The research is motivated by the lack of accurate prevalence data as well as statistics about the actual number of people affected by dementia at national level. Health data from pseudonymized outpatient records (1,378,355) of 642,013 unique patients (Male 39.88%, Female 61.67%) with visits to neurologists and psychiatrists in 2018 was mapped to an OMOP CDM relational database. The size of this dataset is one of largest in the EU context. Prevalence of dementia for all age groups [30,100+] years is 1.61% (Male 0.62%, Female 0.99%) and Alzheimer' disease prevalence is 0.39% (Male 0.15%, Female 0.24%), where 24.34% of all the patients with dementia suffer Alzheimer's disease. The mean prevalence rates of dementia and Alzheimer's disease for ages above 64 are 9.52% (CI 95%, [6.98%, 12.04%]) and 1.04 % (CI 95%, [0.84%, 1.27%,]). A comparison with EU statistics yields 0.07% difference for dementia prevalence, while data visualization confirms the known patterns of prevalence with aging and gender specifics These results stimulate further research and support the development of a national strategy for dementia and Alzheimer's disease.