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The first estimate of the worldwide
direct costs of Alzheimer's disease and dementia care was released today at
the Alzheimer's Association International Conference on the Prevention of
Dementia. As a result, scientists, advocates and those affected by the
disease are calling for increased funding for research and support services.
A team led by Bengt Winblad, M.D., Professor of Geriatric Medicine and
Chief Physician at the Karolinska University Hospital, Huddinge and the
Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, estimated worldwide direct costs for
dementia in 2003 at $156 billion (U.S.), based on a worldwide prevalence
estimate of 27.7 million people with dementia.
"This study represents a significant step forward in confirming what we're
up against," said William Thies, Ph.D., Alzheimer's Association vice president
of Medical & Scientific Affairs. "Our choice is now clearer than ever.
Either increase funding for Alzheimer's disease research to fend off this
looming public health disaster, or sit back and wait for it to overwhelm the
healthcare systems in the U.S. and throughout the world."
On Tuesday afternoon, researchers attending the Alzheimer's Association
Prevention Conference will visit with members of Congress on the Hill to
advocate for legislation such as the Ronald Reagan Alzheimer's Breakthrough
Act. The bill, named after President Reagan who passed away from Alzheimer's
in 2004, authorizes Congress to double federal funding for Alzheimer's disease
research to $1.4 billion annually. It would also provide a tax credit up to
$3,000 to help family caregivers pay for prescription drugs, home health and
day care costs of caring for a loved one with Alzheimer's.
About The Study
The worldwide costs of dementia were estimated from prevalence figures for
the different regions and cost-of-illness studies from key countries. The
researchers used a model based on the relationship between direct costs of
care per demented individual and the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita
in each country. As part of the research, several alternative calculation
methods were explored and compared.
"It is of great interest for policy makers to have a view of how costs of
dementia are distributed worldwide, and therefore we have tried to make a
worldwide estimate," Winblad said. "Since detailed national data are lacking
from many countries, we based our cost estimate on an assumed relationship
between the GDP per capita and direct costs of dementia care. Such a
relationship is known to be valid for overall costs of healthcare."
According to Winblad, the range in the study's sensitivity analysis was
$129-159 billion (U.S.). Due to several sources of uncertainty, the range of
cost estimates is relatively wide. However, the relative lack of precision
should not obscure the fact that these are huge sums of money and, according
to current population and prevalence estimates, these sums will continue to
grow.
"Dementia care is a mix of formal and informal caregiving and this mix is
not uniform throughout the world," Winblad said. "Even among the advanced
economies there is a great range in how dementia care is provided, due to
differences in family patterns, traditions, economic strength, care
organization and financing. Nevertheless, it is obvious that the worldwide
costs are substantial and the expected increase of elderly people, especially
the anticipated rapid increase in developing countries, presents a great
challenge for social and healthcare systems."
Currently, 92 percent of the total worldwide costs of dementia care were
found in what the researchers termed "the advanced economies," which contain
38 percent of the prevalence.
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Saturday, June 25, 2005
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