Nearly half of the world's population in 2021 suffered from a neurological disease, the leading cause of health problems and disability globally, according to estimates from a study published Friday in the medical journal The Lancet Neurology.

According to the study, 3.4 billion people in the world were affected by a neurological disease in 2021, such as stroke, neonatal encephalopathy, migraines, Alzheimer's disease, and other types of dementia, and diabetic neuropathy, meningitis, epilepsy, and cancer are considered the most responsible for the loss. Health in the nervous system.

The study, which assessed the burden of disease, injury and risk factors, highlights that the number of people who lived or died between 1990 and 2021 from neurological diseases, such as stroke, Alzheimer's disease, other types of dementia or meningitis, rose dramatically solely due to the increase in population. and an aging population, but also due to “increased exposure to environmental, metabolic and lifestyle risk factors.”

In 2021, tension-type headaches and migraines together affected about 3.1 billion people globally, according to estimates in work published by The Lancet Neurology, which highlights that diabetic neuropathy was the neurological disease that developed from 1990 to 2021. With cases increasing more than threefold. , reaching 206 million people worldwide three years ago.

“This is consistent with the increase in the global prevalence of diabetes,” one of the study's co-authors, Lian Ong, of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of California, said in a statement to the medical journal. Washington, in the United States.

The study concluded that in 2021, neurological diseases were the main responsible for the burden of disease on a global scale, ahead of cardiovascular diseases, due to years of healthy life lost due to illness, disability or premature death.

Sub-Saharan Africa was the region of the planet that had the greatest impact on diseases of the nervous system.

“Many current strategies for reducing neurological disease have low effectiveness or are not adequately implemented, as is the case with some of the fastest-growing but largely preventable diseases such as diabetic neuropathy and neonatal disease. For many other diseases, There is a cure, which highlights “the importance of increased investment and research into new interventions and risk factors that can be modified,” neurologist Valerie Feigin, MD, a co-author of the study who directs the Institute of Applied Neuroscience from the University of Auckland, New Zealand, said in the same statement.