A patient uses SK Telecom Co.’s artificial intelligence program that can assess dementia by analyzing the patients’ speech, in this photo provided by the company on Nov. 2, 2020.
SEOUL, Aug. 7 (Korea Bizwire) — The leading cause of dementia among South Koreans is insufficient physical activity, a study showed Sunday.
Researchers from the Samsung Medical Center analyzed data from the National Health Insurance Service and monitored a total of 794,448 individuals without any history of dementia as of 2006.
Throughout the observation period until 2017, the data indicated that 49,524 individuals developed dementia, accounting for 6.2 percent of the total.
The dementia occurrence rate per 1,000 people in the study surged to 6.94 in 2017, marking a 4.4-fold increase from 1.56 in 2006.
In terms of gender, women comprised 69.8 percent of those affected by dementia, which equates to 34,644 individuals.
Following a comprehensive analysis of various factors contributing to dementia, the research team concluded that the most substantial contributing factor was a lack of physical activity (8.1 percent), followed by diabetes at 4.2 percent, and high blood pressure at 2.9 percent.
Particularly for women, the alteration in hormone levels during menopause, entailing a rapid decline in estrogen and progesterone, along with a comparatively longer life expectancy, contributed to their heightened dementia incidence rate.
Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
