Dementia Is Well-Entrenched in Many Countries, but Saudi Arabia Is In a Unique Position to Tackle It

Only 3.3 percent of the Saudi Arabian population is older than 65, which means the country has time to plan for the inevitable growth of the segment with dementia, reports Arab News . In the Middle East for the most part, "People don't see it as a disease. They think it is simply part of getting old," says Alzheimer's Disease International (ADI) CEO Paola Barbaroni. "Awareness is low and stigma is high." The Dubai Health Authority's Mohammed El-Noaman conducted research citing "uncertainty" over how to distinguish normal aging from dementia, noting its incurability has bred "prejudice" against spending time or money on diagnosis. Although ADI offers an action plan for countries to record, track, and help those with dementia, Barbaroni says documentation in the Middle East is poor. Saudi Arabia is a particularly poor performer in terms of early detection and diagnosis, with one possible explanation being a lack of a centralized patient databank. Despite this and other serious oversights, ADI's Readiness Index calls Saudi Arabia "exceptional" in government-sponsored care for people with dementia and support for their families. Barbaroni concludes that while the West is lagging the rest of the world in managing dementia, "The Gulf nations . . . are in a position to learn from earlier mistakes, and they have both the luxury of a little time and the financial capability to plan for this and get it right."