Epidemiology
Vascular dementia is the second most common cause of dementia in the United States and Europe in the elderly, but it is the most common form in some parts of Asia. The prevalence of the illness is 1.5% in Western countries and approximately 2.2% in Japan. It accounts for 50% of all dementias in Japan, 20% to 40% in Europe and 15% in Latin America. The incidence of dementia is 9 times higher in patients who have had a stroke than in controls. 25% of stroke patients develop new-onset dementia within 1 year of their stroke. The relative risk of incident dementia is 5.5% within 4 years of suffering a stroke.
The prevalence of vascular dementia is higher in men than in women and it increases with age, but generally occurs earlier than AD, which is uncommon before the age of 80.
Read more about this topic: Multi-infarct Dementia