Trends for Alzheimer’s Disease

 

Today, it is estimated that about five million* Americans suffer from Alzheimer’s disease, and that approximately 350,000 people are newly diagnosed every year in the USA.

Because the population of the U.S. and many other Western countries is aging, the number of people with Alzheimer’s will continue to rise unless something can be done to stem the rise or treat the disease.

At current rates, experts believe that as many as 16 million Americans will have the disease by the year 2050.

Alzheimer’s affects about 10 percent of people ages 65 and over. In addition, the prevalence of Alzheimer’s doubles roughly every 10 years after age 65. As such, half of the population over 85 of age may have Alzheimer’s.

On a global scale, this means that there could be 10′s or even 100′s of millions of people of people in the world suffering from Alzheimer’s.

The financial cost of caring for someone with Alzheimer’s Disease can be overwhelming and is estimated to be about $50,000 per year just for the direct medical expenses.

For five million (the estimated number of people in the USA with Alzheimer’s), this means that Alzheimer’s Disease has direct medical costs of more than US$250 billion per year.

When indirect costs such as lost wages and decreased productivity of sufferers and their care-givers are included, the annual costs of Alzheimer’s rise astronomically – high enough to potentially bankrupt the nation’s entire healthcare system.

*Sources:

• Evans D., International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders, July 22, 2002.
• Evans et al, The Milbank Quarterly, 1990.
• Brookmeyer et al, American Journal of Public Health, 1998.

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