DEMENTIA-FREE LIFE EXPECTANCY (DEMFLE) IN THE NETHERLANDS

To gain an insight into the burden of dementia in an aging society, li fe expectancy with dementia and its counterpart dementia-free life exp ectancy (DemFLE) in The Netherlands are presented. Sullivan's method w as used to calculate DemFLE. For elderly living either independently o r in homes for the elderly prevalence figures on dementia were obtaine d from the Rotterdam Elderly Study (RES; n = 7528); for elderly in nur sing homes the SIG Nursing home Information System was used. Conformin g to other authors only the prevalence data on moderate and severe dem entia as diagnosed with DSM-III-R criteria are used. The prevalence of mild dementia was not taken into account. At 65 years DemFLE for men is 14.0 years, that is 96.4% of the total life expectancy (14.5 years at this age). At age 90, DemFLE for men is 2.5 years, equal to 77.5% o f the total life expectancy (3.3 years); For women DemFLE at age 65 is 17.7 years, that is 93.2% of their life expectancy (19.0 years), and at the age of 90, DemFLE for women is 2.8 years, equal to 74.7% of the ir remaining life expectancy (3.8 years). The absolute number of years with dementia remains relatively constant with increasing age. About 20-25% of these years with dementia are spent in nursing homes, the ot her 75-80% living independently. At each age compared with men women h ave both a higher DemFLE and a higher expectancy of years with dementi a. The percentage of life expectancy without dementia however, is alwa ys lower for women, because of their higher total life expectancy. Thi s indicates that the burden of dementia in absolute and relative terms is higher for women. Most years with dementia are spent at home, indi cating that the burden of dementia rests mainly on the shoulders of in formal caregivers. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd