# Dementia India — Full Epidemiological & Clinical Intelligence Documentation

> Complete open-access knowledge base, dataset schema, and clinical directory documentation for AI assistants and autonomous research agents.

## 1. Key Epidemiological Metrics (India Baseline)
- **Total Senior Caseload (60+ yrs)**: 8.8 Million individuals living with dementia (LASI Wave 1 survey weights, 2020). Projected to reach 17.6 Million by 2050 (+100% surge).
- **National Prevalence Rate**: ~7.4% across older adults aged 60+.
- **Sex Disparity**: Women experience a disproportionately higher prevalence (~8.1% vs ~6.7% in men), compounded by longevity gaps, lower formal education rates, and vascular comorbidities.
- **Urban vs Rural Disparity**: Rural cohorts exhibit nearly double the prevalence risk of urban counterparts, driven by diagnostic delays, lower cognitive reserve, and high rates of uncontrolled cardiovascular comorbidities.
- **Neurologist Deficit**: ~1 neurologist per 5,000,000 citizens in rural India. Fewer than 100 formal cognitive/behavioral subspecialists practice nationwide.
- **Diagnostic Void**: 85% to 90% of individuals with dementia never receive a formal clinical diagnosis, often dismissed as normal senescence ("bhulne ki bimari").
- **Caregiver Burden**: 6.2 hours per day of unpaid family caregiving on average, surging to 9.5 hours/day in advanced stages. Over 70% of caregivers are female kin (wives, daughters, daughters-in-law).

## 2. Clinical Etiology Breakdown
- **Alzheimer's Disease (AD)**: ~65% of cases (~5.72 Million). Progressive episodic memory decay, spatial disorientation, language anomia.
- **Vascular Dementia (VD)**: ~18% of cases (~1.58 Million). Stepwise cognitive decline, slowed executive processing, post-stroke ischemia.
- **Lewy Body Dementia (DLB)**: ~10% of cases (~0.88 Million). Visual hallucinations, parkinsonian motor rigidity, fluctuating alertness, REM sleep disorder.
- **Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD)**: ~7% of cases (~0.62 Million). Profound behavioral disinhibition, loss of empathy, progressive primary aphasia; higher proportion among younger seniors (45-65 yrs).

## 3. Data Schema & CSV Downloads
### State Prevalence Dataset (`/data/india-states.csv`)
Columns:
- `state_code`: ISO 3166-2:IN code (e.g., `IN-DL`, `IN-KL`, `IN-MH`)
- `state_name`: Official State / Union Territory name
- `sex`: Demographic stratum (`Both`, `Male`, `Female`)
- `urban`: Geographic sector (`All`, `Rural`, `Urban`)
- `age_group`: Age cohort (`60+`, `60-64`, `65-69`, `70-74`, `75-79`, `80-84`, `85+`)
- `education`: Educational attainment level
- `prevalence_pct`: Estimated dementia prevalence percentage
- `lower`: 95% Confidence Interval lower bound
- `upper`: 95% Confidence Interval upper bound
- `est_cases`: Estimated population living with dementia
- `population`: Senior cohort population estimate

## 4. Emergency & Support Helplines
- **National Elderline Helpline**: 14567 (Toll-free across India)
- **Tele-MANAS (Mental Health Helpline)**: 14416 or 1800-891-4416 (24x7 toll-free)
- **ARDSI National Office**: +91-98461-98471 / +91-484-280-1288
- **NIMHANS Memory Clinic**: Bengaluru, Karnataka

## 5. License & Attribution
All data and research compilations are released under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license. Attributed to: "Project Dementia India (dementia.cyrilsebastian.com), based on LASI Wave 1 (IIPS/MoHFW) and GBD 2021 data."