Understanding Health With Modern Tech! Study Using AI Reveals Over 10 Million Indians Likely Have Dementia

As per a 2022 study on the Global Burden of Disease published in the Lancet Public Health, the cases of dementia are expected to surge by 166 per cent globally. From 57 million in 2019, about 153 million people are predicted to be affected by the disease in 2050. A recent study published in the journal Neuroepidemiology points toward the growing number of cases and also sheds light on the prevalence of dementia among Indian adults.

More than ten million Indians aged 60 or above may have dementia, which is comparable to the rates seen in countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom. The study is also notable as it is a first-of-its-kind that utilised artificial intelligence (AI) tools to study a global health concern.

Prevalent Among Adult Women

The first-of-its-kind study used an AI technique known as semi-supervised machine learning to analyse data from aroud 31,477 adults. Talking about the sampling and analysis, Haomiao Jin, co-author of the study and Lecturer at the University of Surrey, said, "Our research was based on the first and only nationally representative ageing study in India with more than 30,000 participating older adults in the country."

Based on the sampling and data, the international team of researchers found that the prevalence rate of dementia in adults aged 60 or over could be 8.44 per cent in India. This equates to about 10.08 million older adults in the country. The study also found that dementia was significantly prevalent among females who lived in rural regions and received no education.

Dementia is a group of symptoms that affect an individual's memory, thinking, and social abilities. This severely interferes with their daily life and functioning. Alzheimer's disease, a progressive neurologic disorder that shrinks the brain and could lead the brain cells to die, is one of the most common types of dementia. Some leading causes of dementia include ageing, hypertension, diabetes, and high cholesterol.

Utilizing Modern Technology

As per a Global Burden of Disease study, the cases of dementia are expected to rise from 57 million to 153 million worldwide from 2019 to 2050. The research team from the University of Southern California, University of Surrey, University of Michigan, and All India Institute of Medical Sciences, developed an AI learning model to understand this health concern better. Jin commented, "AI has a unique strength in interpreting large and complex data like this, and our research found that the prevalence of dementia may be higher than prior estimates from local samples."

According to a report by New Indian Express, the model was trained on data, which consisted a labelled dataset of 70 per cent with dementia diagnoses from a novel online consensus. The remaining 30 per cent of data is said to be reserved as a test set to assess the AI's predictive accuracy. The researchers believe that AI and other modern tech bring huge potential to discover patterns in complex data. It has aided researchers in improving the understanding of how diseases impact people across different communities to support the development of precise medical interventions to save lives.

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