Affordability and Feasibility

The financial costs of managing AD are enormous. The cost of illness is high in terms of both public and private resources. Caregivers who are required to provide care and patients affected by dementia also pay a high price in terms of their quality of life. Limited literature is available on the affordability, accessibility and cost of AD management. Further studies are required to assess the cost of disease management for AD. The following section provides some information on the cost of managing AD or dementia where available.

UK8

Although dementia is a major area of expenditure in the UK, over three-quarters of health authorities surveyed (in 1997) were unable to identify the resources spent on dementia care. There have been relatively few studies in this area. Estimated annual cost of Alzheimer disease at between £5,400 and £5,800 million a year in the UK. Estimated costs associated with Alzheimer disease at different stages of the disease revealed that over a three-month period the total mean cost per patient with mild Alzheimer was £6,616, £10,250 for a person with moderate Alzheimer and £13,593 for a person with severe Alzheimer disease in the UK.

The Alzheimer’s association of UK state that although all of these studies highlight the high costs of dementia they still under-estimate the true cost. For example, the costs of caring by partners and children of people with dementia are considerable. Also, what is often overlooked is the cost of not intervening early in the disease. The greatest proportion of direct costs of dementia care is also associated with institutional support. This is often provided at a crisis point, which is always expensive and often precipitated by lack of effective support.

 

US

In a report by Delagarza on the pharmacological management of Alzheimer disease, the authors state that in the US AD accounts for $100 billion per year in medical and custodial expenses, with the average cost per patient at US $27,000 annually. This includes medical and nursing care.15

Canada

The annual cost of caring for patients with dementia has been estimated to range from $941 per patient with mild disease to $36,794 per patient with severe disease, with an average net cost of about 4 billion dollars.