Many people are aware of the prevalence of heart disease and cancer, because they are two of the biggest killers in the developed world. People give less thought to Alzheimer’s, other than in an emotional sense when they think of older relatives, but recent statistics show that this disease is in fact the most expensive ailment in the United States. Figures show that as well as affecting the wellness and wellbeing of the patients themselves and their families, the disease also hits us hard in another sensitive area – our pockets.
The figures that have just been released show that Alzheimer’s costs families between 157 and 215 billion dollars each year.
You may ask yourself why the cost of this disease is so high, especially when compared to diseases such as cancer, which require huge volumes of medical assistance, treatment, and ongoing drugs. The truth is, that the main cost of Alzheimer’s does not come from drugs or from any other type of medical treatment, but purely from the day-to-day care that is required for patients who have the type of mental impairments that Alzheimer’s can cause.
Around 4.1 million Americans are thought to have Alzheimer’s, although this number is thought to rise by around one million if you include those people who have a much milder form of impairment from the disease.
The extreme cost of coping with patients who have dementia needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency as the prevalence of the disease is known to be on the rise as the population ages.
Alzheimer’s can occur with age but can also be brought on as a result of a stroke or another disease. There are no known cures and no way of slowing the disease at all, so care is focused on looking after the daily needs of patients, who can live an average of eight years with the disease, but can lives as many as twenty.
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