Study projects rates among Indigenous people in Canada to go up by 273 per cent by 2050
Dementia cases among Indigenous people in Canada could spike in coming decades, warns the Alzheimer Society of Canada.
The society released a study Jan. 22 that found the number of dementia cases among this demographic is estimated to increase by 273 per cent by 2050, as opposed to 187 per cent among the general population of Canada.
The reason has a lot to do with age. Fewer than five per cent of Indigenous people in Canada were over the age of 65 in 2005. That number will be closer to 15 per cent by 2036, the study said.
It includes no data specific to Nunavut, said Dr. Joshua Armstrong, a research scientist with Alzheimer Society of Canada and lead author of the report.
He said the North wasn’t included in the study because the group that did the modelling wasn’t confident with the data from the territories.
The number-one risk factor for dementia is old age, according to Armstrong.
“We often think about Indigenous populations as being younger, but if you look at the demographic data there is a growing number of people over the age of 65,” he said.
While this may be true for the broader Indigenous population, Statistics Canada census data from 2021 indicates Nunavut has a different demographic makeup.
There are roughly 40,000 people in Nunavut, with 12,000 of them under 14 and nearly 10,000 between the ages of 15 and 30. The study projects to 2050, when more than half of Nunavut’s population will still be 57 or younger.
Age, however, isn’t the only dementia risk, according to the study.
It noted that socioeconomic circumstances, health, racism and colonization can play roles in higher rates of dementia among Indigenous populations.
Dr. Joshua Armstrong is an Alzheimer Society of Canada researcher and lead author of the study that found dementia among Indigenous people of Canada will almost triple in the coming decades. (Photo courtesy Dr. Joshua Armstrong)
It’s still a growing area of research, Armstrong said, “but the idea is that racism … chronic racism, racism on a daily basis, leads to chronic stress.
“And it’s been long known that chronic stress has a negative impact on the brain … which then leads to dementia outcomes as people get older.”
Even if Nunavut doesn’t see the same spike in dementia cases that could occur in other places, there are currently no specialized supports in the territory for people living with it.
Ottawa’s Embassy West long-term care centre has 70 Nunavummiut elders, the majority of whom have a diagnosis of dementia, said Department of Health spokesperson Danarae Sommerville. She did not provide exact numbers.
Anne Crawford, an elder-care advocate and legal representative for the Iqaluit Elders Society, said having to leave home is bad for those with dementia.
“What people need is familiar surroundings, regular regularity and predictability of people you’re in contact with, and of events and repetition of things that you already know,” she said.
“Aging in place is the best possible choice.”
Crawford called on the Nunavut government to sponsor the training and development of psychologists from northern communities, so in turn better dementia diagnosis and treatment is available in the North.
Nunavut MP Lori Idlout agrees, saying neither the federal government nor the GN are doing enough to keep elders in their home communities.
She spoke about the issue in 2021 in the House of Commons and Northern Affairs Minister Dan Vandal said at the time he’d be happy to hold discussions with her on the topic. This has not yet happened, Idlout told Nunatsiaq News this week.
Idlout called the practice of sending Inuit elders south for long-term care a type of exile.
“It’s bad enough that they’ve experienced many atrocities throughout their lifetimes,” she said, adding both levels of government could do things like make sure families are trained to take care of their elders who have specific needs, like dementia.
A 24-bed elders facility in Rankin Inlet is expected to be completed later this year. It will accommodate people with dementia, although it’s not clear how much of that specialized capacity it will have.
There are two more elder-care facilities planned for Iqaluit and Cambridge Bay, but the GN did not provide a timeline for their completion.
