Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2017 Apr;17(2):189-202.
doi: 10.1080/14737167.2017.1313118.

Direct and indirect cost of managing alzheimer's disease and related dementias in the United States

Arijita Deb  1 , James Douglas Thornton  1 , Usha Sambamoorthi  1 , Kim Innes  2
Affiliations
Review

Direct and indirect cost of managing alzheimer's disease and related dementias in the United States

Arijita Deb et al. Expert Rev Pharmacoecon Outcomes Res. 2017 Apr.

Abstract

Care of individuals with Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD) poses special challenges. As the disease progresses, individuals with ADRD require increasing levels of medical care, caregiver support, and long-term care which can lead to substantial economic burden. Areas covered: In this expert review, we synthesized findings from studies of costs of ADRD in the United States that were published between January 2006 and February 2017, highlighted major sources of variation in costs, identified knowledge gaps and briefly outlined directions for future research and implications for policy and program planning. Expert commentary: A consistent finding of all studies comparing individuals with and without ADRD is that the average medical, non-medical, and indirect costs of individuals with ADRD are higher than those without ADRD, despite the differences in the methods of identifying ADRD, duration of the study, payer type and settings of study population. The economic burden of ADRD may be underestimated because many components such as direct non-medical costs for home safety modifications and adult day care services and indirect costs due to the adverse impact of ADRD on caregivers' health and productivity are not included in cost estimates.

Keywords: Dementia; alzheimer’s disease; direct cost; economic burden; indirect cost.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of interest

KE Innes disclosure: NIH/NIGMS U54GM104942, Alzheimer’s Research and Prevention Foundation. JD Thornton disclosure: NIH Research Training Program in Behavioral and Biomedical Sciences 5 BBS T32 GM 081741-08. U Sambamoorthi disclosure: NIH/NIGMS U54GM104942. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

References

    1. Tarawneh R, Holtzman DM. The clinical problem of symptomatic Alzheimer disease and mild cognitive impairment. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Med. 2012;2(5):a006148. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Alzheimer’s Association. 2016 Alzheimer’s disease facts and figures. Alzheimer’s & Dementia. 2016;12(4):459–509. •• This report provides background, context, and key statistics for dementia in the United States. - PubMed
    1. Vann Jones SA, O’Brien JT. The prevalence and incidence of dementia with Lewy bodies: a systematic review of population and clinical studies. Psychol Med. 2014;44(4):673–683. - PubMed
    1. Hebert LE, Weuve J, Scherr PA, et al. Alzheimer disease in the United States (2010-2050) estimated using the 2010 census. Neurology. 2013;80(19):1778–1783. •• Using incidence data from the Chicago Health and Aging Project (CHAP), this study estimated the expected prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease in the United States for the next four decades. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Zhu CW, Scarmeas N, Torgan R, et al. Clinical characteristics and longitudinal changes of informal cost of Alzheimer’s disease in the community. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2006;54(10):1596–1602. - PMC - PubMed