Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD) has become a concerning public health issue. We aimed to analyze the trends of hospital morbidity from AD in the European Union (EU) in the period 2000 to 2014.
Methods: Data from hospital discharges of men and women over 50 years old hospitalized due to AD in the EU were extracted from Eurostat database. We tested for secular trends computing anual percent change, and identified significant changes in the linear slope of the trend.
Results: Hospital morbidity from AD showed a 0.8% (95% confidence intervals -2.2 to 0.6) slight declining trend in the EU. In men and women, we recorded a -0.5% and -1.0% decrease in hospital morbidity rates, respectively. Several countries showed changing trends during the study period.
Conclusion: Alzheimer's disease hospital morbidity has slightly declined in the entire EU in the past years. Eastern European countries showed steadily increasing trends, whereas in western and Mediterranean countries the rates decreased or leveled off.
Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; European union; Joinpoint analysis; hospital morbidity; trends.