Bio-Bank UK reports a rise in dementia cases, primarily among blacks and African-Americans, highlighting the need for further research on these groups.
The findings were disclosed during a two-day inaugural conference on brain health and dementia in Africa held in Nairobi, aimed at offering prevention, treatment and providing hope to those affected by dementia in Africa.
Chi Udeh-Momoh, a neuroscientist at the Brain and Mind Institute at the Aga Khan University, spoke on dementia prevention and the innovative approach of the African-Fingers program.
She explained that the African-Fingers program is a multinational collaboration of dementia experts, aimed at assessing the feasibility and sustainability of multimodal brain health strategies and interventions in the Africa region.
“What is striking is the absolute lack of adequate dementia research despite the increase in its cases,” she said.
Chi added that according to the finger model, some of the causes of dementia include nutrition, exercise, cognitive, social activity and metabolic factors.
According to the research done by Neuro-epidemiology in Africa, the estimated frequency is 9.4% with positive dementia screens predicted by mainly poor quality of life and loneliness.
However, multi-domain approaches, targeting multiple risk factors and tailored at individual and population level, can be effective and feasible for dementia risk reduction.
“There is so much work on dementia but little work on services. We need to start intentionally thinking of how to train the future dementia professions,” said Akin Ojagbemi, Wellcome Trust International Intermediate Fellow at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria.
He spoke on dementia care services where non-specialist workers who are already in primary health care centers could be valuable untapped resources since they are trained to identify and manage mental health conditions in the elderly.
He emphasized on harnessing non-specialist human resources through ‘task-sharing’.
According to research done by the World Health Organization, focusing on Sub-Saharan African, some of the challenges facing dementia control include low availability of multi-disciplinary professionals, unequal distribution of few available professionals in tertiary hospitals and the difficulty in recruiting multi-culturally competent dementia care professionals.
From Sustainable Development Goal number 3, Good-health and Well-Being, by 2030, premature mortality from communicable diseases is expected to reduce by a third in sub-Saharan Africa.
Meanwhile, individuals are tasked to take the necessary precautions in the fight against dementia for a better future.
By Imbiakha Phanice and Rebecca Kibegwa
