Societal costs of dementia: 204 countries, 2000–2019

Abstract

Background

Dementia prevalence is expected to increase as populations grow and age. Therefore, additional resources will be needed to meet the global demand for care for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD).

Objective

Estimate global and country-level health care spending attributable to ADRD and the cost of informal care for people living with ADRD.

Methods

We gathered data from three systematic literature reviews and the Global Burden of Disease 2019 study. We used spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression to impute estimates for the many countries without underlying data. We projected future costs to 2050 based on past trends in costs, diagnosis rates, and institutionalization rate.

Results

We estimated that in 2019, the direct health care spending attributable to ADRD across 204 countries reached $260.6 billion (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 131.6–420.4) and the cost of informal ADRD care was $354.1 billion (95% UI 190.0–544.1). 

On average, informal care represents 57% (95% UI 38–75%) of the total cost of care. We estimated that direct health care spending attributable to ADRD will reach $1.6 trillion (95% UI 0.6–3.3) in 2050, or 9.4% (95% UI 3.9–19.6%) of projected health spending worldwide. We estimated the cost of informal care will reach $0.9 trillion (95% UI 0.3–1.7) in 2050.

Conclusions

These cost estimates underscore the magnitude of resources needed to ensure sufficient resources for people living with ADRD and highlight the role that informal care plays in provision of their care. Incorporating informal care cost estimates is critical to capture the social cost of ADRD.