title: Monetary costs of dementia in the United States.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Dementia affects a large and growing number of older adults in the United States. The monetary costs attributable to dementia are likely to be similarly large and to continue to increase.
  
  
  METHODS
  In a subsample (856 persons) of the population in the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), a nationally representative longitudinal study of older adults, the diagnosis of dementia was determined with the use of a detailed in-home cognitive assessment that was 3 to 4 hours in duration and a review by an expert panel. We then imputed cognitive status to the full HRS sample (10,903 persons, 31,936 person-years) on the basis of measures of cognitive and functional status available for all HRS respondents, thereby identifying persons in the larger sample with a high probability of dementia. The market costs associated with care for persons with dementia were determined on the basis of self-reported out-of-pocket spending and the utilization of nursing home care; Medicare claims data were used to identify costs paid by Medicare. Hours of informal (unpaid) care were valued either as the cost of equivalent formal (paid) care or as the estimated wages forgone by informal caregivers.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The estimated prevalence of dementia among persons older than 70 years of age in the United States in 2010 was 14.7%. The yearly monetary cost per person that was attributable to dementia was either $56,290 (95% confidence interval [CI], $42,746 to $69,834) or $41,689 (95% CI, $31,017 to $52,362), depending on the method used to value informal care. These individual costs suggest that the total monetary cost of dementia in 2010 was between $157 billion and $215 billion. Medicare paid approximately $11 billion of this cost.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Dementia represents a substantial financial burden on society, one that is similar to the financial burden of heart disease and cancer. (Funded by the National Institute on Aging.).
authors.affiliation: RAND, Santa Monica, CA 90401, USA. mhurd@rand.org
authors.forename: Michael D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Hurd
authors.forename: Paco
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Martorell
authors.forename: Adeline
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Delavande
authors.forename: Kathleen J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Mullen
authors.forename: Kenneth M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Langa
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D017281:Cost of Illness; D003704:Dementia / Q000191:economics* / Q000628:therapy; D005260:Female; D017048:Health Care Costs; D006699:Home Care Services / Q000191:economics*; D006701:Home Nursing / Q000191:economics; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D006278:Medicare / Q000191:economics*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009735:Nursing Homes / Q000191:economics*; D014481:United States
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