More research needed into causes of dementia and Alzheimer's

New figures show dementia and Alzheimer's are the largest cause of death of women in the country.

The findings were revealed after death statistics were analysed for gender for the first time.

Population figures from the National Records of Scotland show dementia and Alzheimer’s claimed the lives of 4,384 women in 2017, compared to 2,693 deaths from heart disease.

Heart disease remains the biggest killer for men and overall.

Life expectancy is now 81.2 years for women and 77.1 years for men.

Data reveals poverty is significant when it comes to life expectancy: men living in the most affluent 10% of Scotland expected to live 12.6 years longer than those in the most deprived areas.

The life expectancy gap for women is 9.2 years.

With women living longer than men on average, diseases of old age such as dementia and Alzheimer’s are increasing.

Age Scotland said the figures offered an opportunity to evaluate how effective Scotland's dementia strategy is and look at ways to improve the quality of life of those living with it.

Brian Sloan, chief executive of Age Scotland said: “As Scotland’s population ages at an alarming rate, the number of people living with dementia over the next 20 years will increase by 50% to over 120,000.

“This is an opportunity for the new set of health ministers to evaluate how effective their current dementia strategy is and look at how it impacts on a wide range of other government responsibilities, ensuring that housing, transport and communities are dementia friendly so that Scotland can be better prepared for the future.”

“We support people living with dementia and their carers every day, through our helpline, information publications, our community development work, our Early Stage Dementia project and the workplace training we deliver. The solutions to improving quality of life exist across Scotland and more must be done to bring them all together.”