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Raising awareness about Vascular Dementia in the African-Caribbean community in London

David Truswell

London, the UK capital is home to 58% of all those who identified themselves as African-Caribbean in the UK 2011 National Census. Demographically due to the age profile, the UK African-Caribbean population has the highest proportion of older people than any other Black populations in the Census categories as result of the history of the migration of African-Caribbean peoples into the UK. This saw a significant increase in migration of working age adults in the period from 1940 to 1960, encouraged by the UK government in World War II and the post war UK economic policy. Many of these expected to return to the Caribbean on retirement. At that time, the average life span in the Caribbean was 51.5 years . Subsequently the increasing life expectancy has risen to 74 in the Caribbean and 81 in the UK today. People have put down family roots in the UK and also the poor experience of many pensioner retirees and concerns about the limitations of older peoples services in the Caribbean have led to a high proportion of the African- Caribbean community spending their last years in the UK.

However, the UK African- Caribbean community has a proportionally higher rate of dementia than the White UK majority and a higher proportion of people under 65 developing young onset dementia. A number of researchers have speculated that this may be due to the increased risk factors of diabetes and high blood pressure in the African- Caribbean community creating a higher risk of stroke related vascular dementia , but supporting research for this hypothesis is limited and it would be more accurate to say the causal factors are unknown.