Are more people living with MND today than in the past?
The term used for the number of people living with a disease at any one time is “prevalence”. The prevalence of MND does appear to be increasing. This can probably be explained by the following factors: • The population is ageing. We know that older age is associated with an increased risk of MND. It therefore follows that as the number of people in the higher risk age group increases, so will the number of people who get the disease. • It is possible that diagnosis is improving and that people are getting diagnosed a little sooner (although still not soon enough in many cases). There is still no definitive diagnostic test for MND. • Once people have been diagnosed with MND, some might be living with the disease for longer than they would have done in the past. One reason for this is the introduction of the drug riluzole, which was approved for the treatment of MND in 2001 and extends survival by a few months on average. Other possible reasons are improvements in multi-disciplinary car
