Neurological diseases named the leading cause of ill health in the world

Neurological diseases are now the leading cause of ill health worldwide, says a new study. The number of people living with or dying from conditions such as stroke is rising sharply to 3.4 billion people – 43% of the world’s population.

Research has shown that neurological diseases ranging from migraines to stroke, Parkinson’s disease and dementia are now the leading cause of ill health worldwide and will lead to 11.1 million deaths in 2021, writes The Guardian.

The number of people living with or dying from neurological disorders has risen sharply over the past three decades, and will affect 43% of the world’s population – 3.4 billion people – in 2021, according to a study published in The Lancet.

An analysis from the Global Burden of Disease, Injuries and Risk Factors study found that the total number of disabilities, illnesses and premature deaths caused by 37 neurological conditions increased by just over 18% from an estimated 375 million healthy years of life lost in 1990 to 443 million years in 2021.

The researchers said the increase was driven by a rising global population and higher life expectancy, as well as increased exposure to environmental, metabolic and lifestyle risk factors such as pollution, obesity and diet, respectively.

In the UK alone, according to Brain Research UK, one in six people suffers from some form of neurological disease, and 2.6 million people live with the consequences of a traumatic brain injury or stroke.

There are more than 944,000 people living with dementia in the UK and this number is expected to rise to more than a million by 2030.

Globally, stroke has become the disease with the highest disease burden. Other leading causes include meningitis, epilepsy, Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, traumatic brain injury in newborns, neurological complications in children born before 37 weeks of pregnancy, nerve damage caused by diabetes, autism and cancer of the nervous system.

The most common neurological disorders in 2021 were tension headaches (about 2 billion cases) and migraines (about 1.1 billion cases).

The fastest growing condition surveyed was nerve damage caused by diabetes, which ranked fifth in the world’s burden of disease, reflecting the sharp increase in the incidence of type 2 diabetes over the same period.

For the first time, the study looked at neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism and neurological disorders in children and found that they accounted for 80 million healthy life years lost worldwide in 2021 – about a fifth of the total.

The researchers drew attention to global health inequalities: 80% of neurological deaths and health losses occur in low- and middle-income countries. In the most deprived regions of western and central sub-Saharan Africa, mortality rates and years lost due to ill health, disability or early death were five times higher than the global average.

The study found the importance of preventative measures to reduce the risk of developing certain neurological diseases, the most important of which is reducing high systolic blood pressure, which measures blood pressure when the heart beats. It has been found that these measures can prevent 84% of illness, disability and premature death from stroke.

Lead author Dr. Jamie Steinmetz, from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, emphasizes: “As a leading cause of global disease burden and a 59% increase in cases worldwide since 1990, nervous system diseases must be addressed through effective , culturally appropriate and accessible prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and long-term care strategies.”

Dr Leah Mursalin, research director at Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: “These figures are truly worrying and highlight the need for urgent action. Without this, dementia will continue to destroy millions of lives around the world. Here in the UK this means even more pressure on the NHS.”

Juliet Bouverie, chief executive of the Stroke Association, said: “It is very alarming to read that neurological diseases such as stroke are now the leading cause of ill health and disability worldwide. There are over 100,000 strokes and 1.3 million stroke survivors every year in the UK alone, and these numbers are only set to rise.”