Centre for Policy on Ageing



The impact of symptom severity on the cost of Alzheimer's disease
Author(s)	Gary W Small, Diana D McDonnell, Rachelle L Brooks
Journal title	Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, vol 50, no 2, February 2002
Pages	pp 321-327
Keywords	Dementia ; Symptoms ; Informal care ; Employment ; Costs [care] ; International economic relations ; United States of America.
Annotation	Data on 1,715 households with caregivers of non-institutionalised Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients were collected as part of the Alzheimer's Disease Caregiver Project conducted by Consumer Health Sciences (Princeton, NJ). Cost components included hospital days, doctors' visits, and visits to accident and emergency (A&E). Lost productivity was assessed using hours per week that caregivers provided care and the number of days missed from work because of caregiving. Direct costs of caring for AD patients for 6 months amounted to $3,129, whereas the indirect costs were $26,080. Results of this large study of patients at all stages of AD indicate that the direct and indirect costs of AD are considerably lower for patients with fewer symptoms. Longitudinal studies will determine the impact on overall cost of interventions that reduce symptoms and maintain patients at earlier stages of the disease. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-020701205 A
Classmark	EA: CT: P6: WJ: QDC: WF: 7T
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing

...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.