An estimate of the prevalence of dementia among community-dwelling elderly in Israel.

The study goal was to identify the prevalence of dementia among elderly people aged 65 and over living in the community in Israel. The target population included 47,834 community-dwelling elderly aged 65 and over in Jerusalem. Of this population, 1,624 elderly were randomly sampled according to ten strata of sex and age groups. The study included initial screening for 'suspected' dementia cases followed by in-depth clinical evaluation to determine whether an individual indeed suffered from dementia. One fifth (19.2%) of the elderly aged 65 and over, living in the community in Jerusalem, were found to have dementia at varying levels of severity. When the specific rates of elderly with dementia in the community in Jerusalem by gender and age groups were applied to data on the total elderly population in the community in Israel at the end of 2002, the prevalence of dementia was an estimated 16.7%. The percentage of elderly with dementia in Israel is in the upper range of rates quoted in other studies. The health and social service systems in Israel will have to make provisions to care for a much larger number of dementia sufferers than has been previously estimated.