September 21st every year is World Alzheimer’s Day around the world. This is an international campaign aimed at raising awareness and challenge the common stigma that surrounds Alzheimer related dementia. September 2023 marks the 12th year of this vital global awareness raising campaign.
Alzheimer’s is a progressive disease that impairs memory and other mental functions. It is the most common form of dementia that generalizes memory loss and loss of other essential cognitive abilities that are serious enough to interfere with an individual’s daily life. From previous studies, an average of 2 out of 3 people globally have little or no understanding of Alzheimer’s disease and associated dementia in their countries.
Since its inception, the impact of World Alzheimer’s Month is increasing. However, the stigmatisation and lack of information surrounding dementia remains to be a global problem that calls for global action. As outlined in our World Alzheimer Report 2019, many people still wrongly believe that dementia is a part of normal ageing. This alone highlights how important public awareness campaigns, like World Alzheimer’s Month, are for changing perceptions and increasing existing public knowledge around Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
With the number of people living with dementia set to almost triple by 2050, it has never been more important to recognise the risk factors associated with dementia and take proactive steps towards risk reduction. As such, this year’s theme ‘Never too early, never too late’, centres on the key risk factors and risk reduction, aiming to emphasise their crucial role in delaying and potentially preventing the onset of dementia. This also importantly includes ongoing risk reduction for those who have already been diagnosed.
It is only through a truly global effort that we can raise much needed awareness and challenge the stigma and misinformation that still surrounds dementia, and we are calling on everyone to do something during September, however small or large, through the campaign ‘Know Dementia, Know Alzheimer’s’.
World Alzheimer’s Month | Alzheimer's Disease International (ADI) (alzint.org)