Deaths from dementia in Scotland up by more than a fifth in a year

DEATHS caused by dementia in Scotland have risen by more than 20% in a year, according to official statistics.

Provisional quarterly figures show 1,877 people died from forms of the disease between January and April.

National Records of Scotland (NRS) data shows the figure is up from 1,537 during the same period in 2016 – an increase of 22%.

Dr Matthew Norton, director of policy at Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: “These statistics underline yet again the urgent need to tackle this devastating condition.

“Age is the biggest risk factor for dementia and our ageing population is driving increases in the numbers of people living with and dying from the condition – but dementia is not an inevitable part of ageing and these figures must galvanise efforts to defeat the condition through research.

“Unless we can find treatments able to fight diseases like Alzheimer’s, this challenge will only worsen.

“Advances in medicine have helped deliver increasing life expectancy, but to ensure people can live healthily as they grow older we need to see similar progress in the fight against dementia.”

Part of the increase has been attributed to a change in NRS death coding software, but Dr Norton claimed this would only account for a small proportion of the rise.

Figures from the Scottish Government department’s report show Alzheimer’s disease accounted for 648 of the deaths – up from 495 last year.