Mortality in Dementia from 1996 to 2015: A National Registry-Based Cohort Study

BACKGROUND: It remains unclear whether the increased focus on improving healthcare and providing appropriate care for people with dementia has affected mortality. OBJECTIVE: To assess survival and to conduct a time trend analysis of annual mortality rate ratios (MRR) of dementia based on healthcare data from an entire national population. METHODS: We assessed survival and annual MRR in all residents of Denmark ≥65 years from 1996–2015 using longitudinal registry data on dementia status and demographics. For comparison, mortality and survival were calculated for acute ischemic heart disease (IHD) and cancer. RESULTS: The population comprised 1,999,366 people (17,541,315 person years). There were 165,716 people (529,629 person years) registered with dementia, 131,321 of whom died. From 1996–2015, the age-adjusted MRR for dementia declined (women: 2.76 to 2.05; men: 3.10 to 1.99) at a similar rate to elderly people without dementia. The sex-, age-, and calendar-year-adjusted MRR was 2.91 (95%CI: 2.90–2.93) for people with dementia. MRR declined significantly more for acute IHD and cancer. In people with dementia, the five-year survival for most age-groups was at a similar level or lower as that for acute IHD and cancer. CONCLUSION: Although mortality rates declined over the 20-year period, MRR stayed higher for people with dementia, while the MRR gap, compared with elderly people without dementia, remained unchanged. For the comparison, during the same period, the MRR gap narrowed between people with and without acute IHD and cancer. Consequently, initiatives for improving health and decreasing mortality in dementia are still highly relevant.