An estimated 35,700 people under 65 years old suffer from dementia nationwide, according to a survey by the Tokyo Metropolitan Geriatric Hospital and Institute of Gerontology (TMGH-IG.)
The survey results are to be submitted to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry and used as basic data for formulating dementia-related measures in the future.
Commissioned by the Tokyo-based Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development, the TMGH-IG conducted the survey from fiscal 2017 to fiscal 2019, asking nearly 17,000 medical institutions, nursing-care service providers and other facilities in 12 prefectures including Tokyo and Osaka about patients with so-called early-onset dementia.
According to TMGH-IG estimates, 50.9 adults aged 18-64 per 100,000 population experience early-onset dementia, equivalent to about 35,700 individuals nationwide.
According to an estimate based on a survey conducted by a health ministry research team in five prefectures from fiscal 2006 to fiscal 2008, the number of people with early-onset dementia was 47.6 people aged 18-64 per 100,000 population, a total of about 37,800.
Although the rate of patients per 100,000 population is higher in the latest survey, the total estimated number of sufferers has slightly fallen due to the decrease in the number of people aged 18-64 in the population.
Another survey on the lives of people with early-onset dementia and their family members found that about 60 percent of the patients were employed at the onset of the disease. Of these, about 70 percent had quit their jobs when the survey was conducted, indicating many sufferers face unemployment and loss of income.
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