World Alzheimer’s Month
Arvind M. Dhople, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, Florida Tech
World Alzheimer’s Month is the international campaign every September to raise awareness and challenge the stigma that surrounds dementia. World Alzheimer’s Month was launched in 2012. World Alzheimer’s Day is on 21 September each year.
2 out of every 3 people globally believe there is little or no understanding of dementia in their countries. The impact of World Alzheimer’s Month is growing, but the stigmatization and misinformation that surrounds dementia remains a global problem, that requires global action.
The global impact of dementia (Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias):
Around the world, there are 10.2 million new dementia cases in 2015 – one every 3 seconds.
46.8 million people worldwide are living with dementia in 2015. This number will almost double every 20 years – by 2030, 74.7 million, and 2050, 131.5 million.
Much of the increase will take place in low and middle income countries – in 2015, 58% of all people with dementia live in LMIC, rising to 63% in 2030 and 68% in 2050.
The total estimated worldwide cost of dementia in 2015 is $818 billion; by 2018, it will become a trillion dollars, rising to 2 trillion dollars by 2030.
If ‘global dementia care’ were a country, it would be the 18th largest economy in the world exceeding the market values of companies such as Apple and Google – Dementia ($818 billion), Apple ($ 742 billion), and Google ($368 billion).
Number of people living with dementia in each world region in 2015 – The Americas (9.4 million), Europe (10.5 million), Asia (22.9 million), and Africa (4.0 million).
Impact of dementia in the United States (Alzheimer’s and other dementias):
Number of diseases in the 10 leading causes of deaths in the U.S. that cannot be prevented, slowed or cured – Alzheimer’s disease stands alone. It is the 6th leading cause of death in the U.S.
An estimated 5.5 million Americans of all ages are living with dementia in 2017, and that includes estimated 5.3 million people age 65 and older (i.e., one in 10 people age 65 and older) has dementia.
By 2025, the number of people age 65 and older with dementia is estimated to reach 7.1 million – about a 35 percent increase from 2017. By 2050, this number is projected to be 13.8 million, barring the development of medical breakthroughs to prevent or cure the disease. (In Florida, there are 520,000 people with Alzheimer’s disease in 2017; between 2017 and 2020, there will be 11.5% increase, and between 2017 and 2025, it will be 38.5% increase in Alzheimer’s disease).
Every 66 seconds someone in the U.S. develops the Alzheimer’s disease.
35% of caregivers for people with dementia report that their health has gotten worse due to care responsibilities, compared to 19% of caregivers for older people without dementia.
Data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (C.D.C.) show that between 1999 and 2014 the number of deaths from Alzheimer’s disease climbed from 16.5 per 100,000 Americans to 25.4 percent per 100,000 (while those from heart disease have declined). Dementia has listed as the cause of nearly 94,000 deaths in 2015. However, dementia is the leading factor in as many as 500,000 deaths a year, many attributed to pneumonia, heart disease and other causes.
Since 2000, deaths from heart disease have decreased by 14%, while deaths from Alzheimer’s have increased by 89%.
Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias kill more than breast cancer and prostate cancer combined.
2017 marks the first year total annual payment for caring American individuals, age 65 and older, living with dementias will surpassed a quarter of a trillion dollars – $259 billion, that include health care and long-term care. Out of that, $131 billion (51%) for Medicare, $44 billion (17%) Medicaid, $56 billion (22%) out of pockets, and $28 billion (11%) other.
By 2050, these costs could rise as high as $1.1 trillion.
More than 15 million Americans provide unpaid care for people with Alzheimer’s disease or other dementias. In 2016, these caregivers provided as estimated 18.2 billion hours of care valued at over $230 billion.
A news at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in London, U. K., in last week of July 2017: ‘Twenty U. S. states have been identified as neurology “deserts” areas with a chronic shortage of neurologists and a rapid rise in Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia cases’.