World Alzheimer’s Day was on September 21, 2010, and the Alzheimer’s Disease International released the World Alzheimer Report 2010 that provides statistical data on the global economic impact of dementia.

According to the report, 5.06 million persons in the Caribbean are over 60 years old and the prevalence of Alzheimer’s is about 6.5 percent with about 333,000 people currently suffering from dementia, a number that is expected to rise to 620,000 by 2030 and 1.04 million by 2050.

Other important statistics include 80% of caregivers are female and 18% of those providing to people with dementia are the spouses of the person with dementia. The economic effect of dementia on the Caribbean countries is 1.06% of their GDP.