Economic Impact Of Dementia Research Articles

The Social and Economic Impact of Dementia

The Social and Economic Impact of Dementia

Economic Impact of Dementia After Kidney Transplantation: A Matched Cohort Analysis

Economic Impact of Dementia After Kidney Transplantation: A Matched Cohort Analysis

Developing Methods to Evaluate Content Quality of Dementia Websites.

With the popularity of the Internet, consumers are likely to resort to websites for dementia information. However, they may not have the knowledge or experience in distinguishing quality information from opinion pieces. This study investigated the developing methods, instruments and parameters for evaluating the content quality of dementia websites. By reviewing 18 existing instruments from the relevant literature, we identified four developing methods - questionnaire survey, automatic evaluation, Delphi method and focus group discussion. These instruments include six parameters - reliability, currency, readability, disclosure, objectivity and relevance - to evaluate the content quality. With the significant social and economic impact of dementia, developing specific instruments to measure the content quality of dementia websites is necessary.

Physical exercise for individuals with dementia: potential benefits perceived by formal caregivers

BackgroundThe social and economic impact of dementia for the development of accessible and sustainable care for individuals with dementia (IwD). Physical exercise has been seen as a beneficial non-pharmacological therapy in the prevention and management of dementia, and possible benefits may not only impact on participants, but also indirectly on their caregivers. Thus, this quasi-experimental non-randomized study aimed to analyze the effects of an exercise intervention on functional capacity, behavioural and psychological symptoms in dementia (BPSD) and quality of life of institutionalized older adults with dementia, perceived by their formal caregivers.MethodsSixty-four institutionalized older adults (from both genders, aged 65–93 yrs. old), clinically diagnosed with dementia, were divided into two groups: control group (CG, continued with usual care, n = 26) and exercise group (EG, 6-month supervised multicomponent exercise intervention, n = 38). Nine caregivers (female, aged 28–47 yrs. old) from nine different nursing homes, reported about their distress related to BPSD and proxy-reported about participants’ functional capacity (Katz index), quality of life (QoL-AD), BPSD (NPI) before and after 6 months of an exercise intervention (aerobic, muscular resistance, flexibility and postural exercises).ResultsA two-way ANOVA, with repeated measures, revealed significant group and time interactions on Total Katz index and QoL-AD. The CG’s performance functional capacity and quality of life score worsen over time while in EG maintains these values after the exercise intervention. Moreover, formal caregiver’s distress triggered by apathy and disinhibition increased in CG while after 6 months of an exercise intervention no alterations were seen regarding these distress causes in EG. No significant main effects were observed for total NPI score or NPI distress.ConclusionsOverall results show that after the exercise intervention, IwD from the EG, was capable of preserving the functional capacity, quality of life and neuropsychiatric symptoms were attenuate, contributing to a lower load of distress for the caregivers.Trial registrationclinicaltrials.gov, NCT04095962. Retrospectively registered on 19 September 2019

Predictors of mortality in Māori, Pacific Island, and European patients diagnosed with dementia at a New Zealand Memory Service.

As the economic impact of dementia on health and social care increases, governments require disease-specific epidemiological data that will help inform spending and policy decisions. The aim of this study is to examine predictors of mortality in dementia in consecutive referrals to a New Zealand (NZ) memory service that includes Māori, Pacific Islander, and NZ European patients. Date of birth, sex, ethnicity, living situation, cognitive function, dementia subtype, dementia severity, physical comorbidity, and medication data were collected from electronic health records. The resulting data set was linked to administrative data on mortality and last hospital contact dates to allow time-dependent survival analyses. The risk of death in people with dementia was increased by age (adjusted HR per year 1.08, 95%CI:1.05-1.12) and lower cognitive score at baseline (adjusted HR for severe impairment:2.54, 95% CI:1.25-5.16), and was reduced by cholinesterase inhibitors (adjusted HR:0.54, 95% CI:0.34-0.88). Compared to NZ Europeans (HR:1.19, 95% CI:0.63-2.25), antipsychotics increased the risk of death three-fold in Māori (adjusted HR:3.62, 95% CI:0.79-16.7) and Pacific Islanders (adjusted HR:2.54, 95%CI:1.10-5.85). Further research is required to elucidate the mechanisms underlying the survival rates in Māori and Pacific Islanders living with dementia in NZ,and their increased risk of death if antipsychotics are used.

Social Aspects of Dementia Prevention from a Worldwide to National Perspective: A Review on the International Situation and the Example of Italy.

At the moment, dementia is affecting around 47 million people worldwide, with a forecast amount of 135 million affected people in 2050. Dementia is a growing health concern worldwide with no treatment currently available, but only symptomatic medication. Effective interventions in the prevention and management of dementia are urgently needed to contain direct and indirect costs of this disease. Indeed, the economic impact of dementia is a vast and continually growing figure, but it is still difficult to quantify. Due to an increase in both the disease spreading and its direct and indirect costs, national and international action plans have to be implemented. As a virtuous example, the Italian national plan for dementia has been summarized. Faced with an increasingly less sustainable disease impact at national and international levels, the plan suggests that it is certainly the entire welfare model that should be rethought, strengthening the network of services and providing interventions to support affected people and their caregivers. Alongside this synergistic approach, scientific research could play a crucial role for pharmacological and nonpharmacological treatments capable of delaying the state of loss of self-sufficiency of the patient, with a significant impact on social and health costs.

Prospects of Effective Management of Dementia for Ukraine: Learning from International Experience

Despite the scale of the spread and economic impact of dementia on families, caregivers and the community as a whole, the disease of dementia is either not discussed at all or is not a priority in low-economic countries. The purpose of this study is to attract attention of policy and decision makers to dementia problems in Ukraine to facilitate developing systems of health care and social care for people living with dementia and their caregivers. It is one of the first attempts to look at the problem of dementia in Ukraine from the public administration point of view in different aspects and directions, as well as an attempt to initiate a professional discussion with policy and decision makers on issues of developing and implementing a strategy for people living with dementia and their families. Since Ukraine is not yet on the list of the countries which joined the global program of counteracting dementia and this problem is not relevant to Ukraine , we tried to make a short comparative analysis of Ukraine with countries for which dementia is one of the national priorities (France, the Netherlands, the USA, the UK, Norway and Australia).

Informe de la Fundación del Cerebro. Impacto social de la enfermedad de Alzheimer y otras demencias

IntroductionKnowledge of the socioeconomic impact of dementia-related disorders is essential for appropriate management of healthcare resources and for raising social awareness. MethodsWe performed a literature review of the published evidence on the epidemiology, morbidity, mortality, associated disability and dependence, and economic impact of dementia and Alzheimer disease (AD) in Spain. ConclusionsMost population studies of patients older than 65 report prevalence rates ranging from 4% to 9%. Prevalence of dementia and AD is higher in women for nearly every age group. AD is the most common cause of dementia (50%-70% of all cases). Dementia is associated with increased morbidity, mortality, disability, and dependence, and results in a considerable decrease in quality of life and survival. Around 80% of all patients with dementia are cared for by their families, which cover a mean of 87% of the total economic cost, resulting in considerable economic and health burden on caregivers and loss of quality of life. The economic impact of dementia is huge and difficult to evaluate due to the combination of direct and indirect costs. More comprehensive programmes should be developed and resources dedicated to research, prevention, early diagnosis, multidimensional treatment, and multidisciplinary management of these patients in order to reduce the health, social, and economic burden of dementia.

Economic Impact of Dementia by Disease Severity: Exploring the Relationship between Stage of Dementia and Cost of Care in Taiwan.

ObjectiveGiven the shortage of cost-of-illness studies in dementia outside of the Western population, the current study estimated the annual cost of dementia in Taiwan and assessed whether different categories of care costs vary by severity using multiple disease-severity measures.MethodsThis study included 231 dementia patient–caregiver dyads in a dementia clinic at a national university hospital in southern Taiwan. Three disease measures including cognitive, functional, and behavioral disturbances were obtained from patients based on medical history. A societal perspective was used to estimate the total costs of dementia according to three cost sub-categories. The association between dementia severity and cost of care was examined through bivariate and multivariate analyses.ResultsTotal costs of care for moderate dementia patient were 1.4 times the costs for mild dementia and doubled from mild to severe dementia among our community-dwelling dementia sample. Multivariate analysis indicated that functional declines had a greater impact on all cost outcomes as compared to behavioral disturbance, which showed no impact on any costs. Informal care costs accounted for the greatest share in total cost of care for both mild (42%) and severe (43%) dementia patients.ConclusionsSince the total costs of dementia increased with severity, providing care to delay disease progression, with a focus on maintaining patient physical function, may reduce the overall cost of dementia. The greater contribution of informal care to total costs as opposed to social care also suggests a need for more publicly-funded long-term care services to assist family caregivers of dementia patients in Taiwan.

An overview of the LASER-AD study: A longitudinal epidemiological study of people with Alzheimer's disease

Research into the epidemiological, clinical characteristics and economic impact of dementia is critical to increase understanding and better inform care and policy, and empower people with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and their families to make preparations and timely decisions about accommodation, care and treatment. The LASER-AD longitudinal study of people with AD and their carers has contributed to our understanding of the progression, characteristics and costs of the disease, and to developing tools that help detect dementia earlier, and screen and identify problems experienced by carers. Our work on quality of life shows that even those with severe dementia can report this meaningfully, although family proxy ratings of quality of life do not necessarily mirror the views of the individual. Despite the impact of the disease process, people with AD experience well-being in adversity and still live fulfilling lives. The study highlights the high prevalence and severity of neuropsychiatric symptoms, carer anxiety, depression and abusive behaviour. It informs future directions for possible interventions, in particular the central role of carer coping strategies in predicting carer mental illness. Current research is building on our findings, which have also been used to inform national and international plans for managing people with dementia and their carers.

Economic impact of dementia in developing countries: an evaluation of costs of Alzheimer-type dementia in Argentina

There is no previous information about economic costs of Alzheimer's disease (AD) in South America. The objective of this study was to evaluate the costs of AD in Argentina. Eighty community-dwelling patients, 20 institutionalized AD patients and their respective primary caregivers, and 25 healthy elderly subjects participated in this study. The cognitive and neuropsychiatric impairments and severity of dementia were assessed with the Mini-mental State Examination, Neuropsychiatric Inventory and Clinical Dementia Rating, respectively. A structured interview about health and health-care resources used during the past 3 months was administered to family caregivers. The time devoted by carers to looking after the patients and the caregiver burden (Zarit's Burden Interview) were recorded. The annual direct costs of the disease increased with cognitive deterioration from US$3420.40 in mild to US$9657.60 in severe AD, and with institutionalization (US$3189.20 outpatient vs. US$14,447.68 institutionalized). Most direct costs were paid for by the family. With the projected increase in the number of persons at risk for developing AD in emerging countries, the family cost of the disease will be significant. Dementia costs should be a matter of analysis when health policies are being designed in developing countries.

Economic Analysis of Galantamine, a Cholinesterase Inhibitor, in the Treatment of Patients with Mild to Moderate Alzheimer’s Disease in The Netherlands

Background: The economic impact of dementia on the Dutch health and social services is substantial. Objective: To predict the long-term economic impact of galantamine, a cholinesterase inhibitor, in the treatment of Dutch patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease. Method: A pharmacoeconomic model was used to predict long-term outcomes. It has two components: an initial module based on clinical trials of galantamine and a subsequent module that predicts when a patient will deteriorate to a level where full time care (FTC) is needed. The analyses take a broad perspective that includes all formal (paid) care, not just those covered by the Dutch health care system. Direct cost estimates were based on resource use profiles of patients with Alzheimer’s disease in the Netherlands. Key inputs were tested in sensitivity analyses. Results: After 10.5 years all patients are predicted to require FTC. For every hundred patients starting treatment on galantamine at the mild to moderate stage, it is predicted that 18 person-years of FTC will be avoided (14.4 discounted) and about 5 quality-adjusted years of life will be gained (3.9 discounted). Net savings for those starting treatment with galantamine are estimated at NLG 3,050 (1,676 UDS). The cost of galantamine accounts for only about 5.0% of the total cost of care for treated Alzheimer’s patients. The direction of these results remained unchanged when input values and assumptions were tested in sensitivity analyses. Conclusions: The cholinesterase inhibitor galantamine is expected to bring savings in the direct cost of caring for patients with Alzheimer’s disease in the Netherlands.