On this Memorial Day weekend, I want to give a shout out to all those men and women who courageously and unselfishly dedicated all or some of their lives to serving in the military. Some served only for a short time, others made a career of service. Their complete tour of duty may have been during “peace time”, or they may have served during combat. It doesn't matter, once you signed up, you didn't know your fate. Thank you all.
So I wondered how many veterans are afflicted with one of the dementias, and if military service increased their risk of getting dementia. In a report by pubmed.gov, whose goal was to assess the prevalence of a dementia diagnosis among those treated at Veterans Affairs (VA) medical centers, it found “the prevalence of dementia ranged from 5.8 to 9.4%. Alzheimer's disease was the most frequently diagnosed type of dementia within the VA. The degree of combat exposure, Vietnam era Agent Orange exposure and Gulf War Illness, may also influence risk for AD.”
A veteranaid.org report suggested in their most recent studies (2017), “that veterans are at an increased risk for Alzheimer's compared to their civilian counterparts. In fact, statistics show that veterans are more than twice as likely to develop the disease when compared to seniors who have never served. The VA estimates that more than 750,000 older veterans have dementia.”
I find it heart breaking that those who had to face the trauma of combat and survived (RIP and God bless those who didn't), eventually have to face a worse fate in their later years. To all who served during WWII, of which there are some, Korea, Vietnam and Afghanistan, and even to those who served in non combat locations, I can't thank you enough.
I don't know the statistics for Veteran's dementia, but the absolutely best source I've found is the VA itself, and the periodic e-newsletters it produces. I learned a lot more about its range of services (far more than many people realize), especially its outreach services.