ALMOST 9,000 people in the Bradford District could have dementia by 2035.

There are currently thought to be around 5,200 people in the district living with dementia, but this number is expected to rapidly increase as the number of people who are living to their 90s and beyond increases in the coming years.

The sobering statistics were given to members of Bradford Council’s Health and Social Care Scrutiny Committee at a meeting on Thursday evening.

Members were told that Bradford was performing much better than many areas of the country for diagnosing the condition – but that issues within the district like high smoking rates and poor health meant a higher proportion of people in Bradford went on to develop dementia.

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During the meeting it was revealed that around four in five people who have dementia have been diagnosed with the condition, one of the highest rates of diagnosis in the region and meaning that fewer are undiagnosed.

And the district also has a high rate of people with dementia who are registered with the Alzheimers Society – 85 per cent – making it easier for them to access help and support. In some areas of the country that figure is as low as 35 per cent.

Sarah Exall, Speciality Registrar in Public Health told the committee: “The population of older adults in Bradford will rise quite significantly by 2035, which will have implications for the number of people with dementia.

“The proportion of people who have been diagnosed reflects the hard work being done to raise awareness of dementia.”

She said the large increase in people with the condition by 2035 will be down to an increase in the “very, very old population” including people in their 90s.

Explaining the high levels of dementia in the district, she said: “There is a high rate of risk factors in Bradford – risk factors for dementia are similar to risk factors for cardio vascular illness. These include smoking, a lack of exercise, unhealthy diets. There is that saying, what is good for the heart is good for the head.”

A report presented to the committee said Bradford appears to have a higher mortality rate for people with dementia than Yorkshire and the Humber or England as a whole. It says the causes for this were “unclear.”

It added: “An important marker of quality of care is where people with dementia die. When asked in surveys, people tend to express a desire to die in their own home, with the least popular location to die being in hospital. In Bradford, more people with dementia are dying in their usual place of residence than in the rest of the country. Locally this means that fewer people are dying in hospital and more people are dying in care homes than in the country as a whole.”

A number of “dementia cafes” are held throughout the district to allow people living with the condition to access support, and to overcome any stigmas regarding the condition.

There are currently services like this in Ilkley, Eccleshill and Undercliffe. A café for patients from South Asian communities is currently being set up in Girlington Community Centre, and aims to raise awareness of dementia and challenge stigma among South Asian communities.