Written By: N. Lothungbeni Humtsoe | Updated : November 18, 2025 8:32 PM IST
Dementia is a medical condition that can be caused by several diseases that may occur over time by destroying the nerve cells and damaging the brain. One of the significant changes that occurs in those who have dementia is cognitive impairment. An Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) study revealed that in 2024, dementia was one of the leading causes of death in Australia. It pushed the disease as the country's top killer disease for the first time.
The finding further showed that apart from dementia, other diseases that gripped Australia are Alzheimer's disease, ischaemic heart disease and the country's leading cause of death in the previous year. The ABS stated that out of 187,268 deaths registered in Australia in 2024, about 17,549 deaths were attributed to dementia.
However, the news is that the ABS attributed most of the deaths to Australia's ageing population. The data noted 68.2 per cent of all deaths in 2024 were individuals who were above 75 years, which is up from the 2004 record, i.e 63.3 per cent.
According to a report released in September, the Australian Health and Welfare revealed that cases of dementia may spike from what was recorded in 2024 which is 425,000. The study predicted that the number of cases would be more than one million by 2065.
The Alzheimer's Organization states that dementia is a symptom associated with a decline in memory, reasoning or other thinking skills. Many conditions can cause dementia and experts say that Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of cognitive impairment that accounts for 60-80 per cent of dementia cases.
"Dementia is a general term used to describe a significant decline in cognitive ability that interferes with a person's activities of daily living. Alzheimer disease (AD) is the most prevalent type of dementia, accounting for at least two-thirds of cases in individuals aged 65 and older," the National Institute of Health (NIH) explains. "AD is a neurodegenerative condition with insidious onset and progressive impairment of behavioral and cognitive functions. These functions include memory, comprehension, language, attention, reasoning, and judgment."
These are some of the signs and symptoms of dementia you must watch out for, according to the World Health Organization (WHO):
Researchers from the US have found that people who make quick lifestyle changes to prevent cognitive impairment reveals that these people are less likely to develop dementia despite underlying genetic risk. Here are seven habits you must develop to prevent cognitive impairment:
The findings were published in the Journal American Academy of Neurology (AAN) in May 2022.
