Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-d8cs5 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-14T17:08:13.275Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Economic impact of Alzheimer's disease in the United Kingdom

Cost of care and disease severity for non-institutionalised patients with Alzheimer's disease

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

E. Souêtre ,
R. M. A. Thwaites  and
H. L. Yeardley
E. Souêtre
Affiliation:
Benefit USA, 101 Main Street, Suite 1701, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA
R. M. A. Thwaites*
Affiliation:
Pharmacoeconomic Research, Glaxo Wellcome Research & Development, Greenford Road, Greenford, Middlesex UB6 0HE, UK
H. L. Yeardley
Affiliation:
Benefit Deutschland GmbH, Schleussnerstrasse 42, D-63263 Neu-Isenburg, Germany
*
R. M. A. Thwaites, Pharmacoeconomic Research. Glaxo Wellcome Research & Development, Greenford Road, Greenford, Middlesex UB6 0HE
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background

While the costs associated with Alzheimer's disease have been shown to be significant, there are few data relating cost of care to severity of the disease.

Aims

We aimed to compare the costs associated with different severities of Alzheimer's disease with those incurred by control subjects over a three-month period.

Method

In this cross-sectional, multicentre, naturalistic analysis, non-institutionalised patients with Alzheimer's disease (128), their care-givers (128), and 56 matched controls were interviewed once to establish resource use over the previous three months. Patients were stratified into three severity groups according to their Mini Mental State Examination score. Costs were calculated from the perspective of society as a whole.

Results

Over the three-month period, total mean cost per control subject (£387) was minor compared with mean cost incurred by patients with mild (£6616), moderate (£10 250) and severe (£13 593) Alzheimer's disease. Indirect cost, mainly time spent by care-givers, was the main cost component in all groups (68.6%), followed by direct medical costs (24.7%)

Conclusions

The cost of care for an Alzheimer's disease patient is directly related to the severity of the patient's illness.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 174 , Issue 1 , January 1999 , pp. 51 - 55
Copyright
Copyright © 1999 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Declaration of interest

Funded by Glaxo Wellcome Research & Development.

References

Breteler, M. M. B., Claus, J. J., Launer, L. J., et al (1992) Epidemiology of Alzheimer's Disease. Epidemiology Review, 14, 59–82.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Department of Health (1993) Hospital Episode Statistics, Vol. 1, Finished Consultant Episodes by Diagnosis, Operation and Speciality. Financial year 1992–1993. London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Erkinjuntti, T., Wikström, J., Palo, J., et al (1986) Dementia among medical inpatients: evaluation of 2000 consecutive admissions. Archives of Internal Medicine, 146, 1923–1926.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Evans, D. A., Funkenstein, H. H., Albert, M. S., et al (1989) Prevalence of Alzheimer's Disease in a community population of older persons. Journal of the American Medical Association, 262, 251–256.Google Scholar
Evans, D., Scherr, P. A., Cook, N. R., et al (1990) Estimated prevalence of Alzheimer's Disease in the United States. Milbank Quarterly, 68, 267–289.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Folstein, M. F., Fobtein, S. E. & McHugh, P. R. (1975) Mini-mental state: A practical method for grading the cognitive state of patients for the clinician. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 12, 189–198.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gray, A. & Fenn, P. (1993) Alzheimer's Disease: the burden of illness in England. Health Trends, 25, 31–37.Google ScholarPubMed
Hellinger, F. J. (1993) The lifetime cost of treating a person with HIV. Journal of the American Medical Association, 270, 474–478.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Heyman, A., Wilkinson, W. E., Stafford, J. A. (1984) Alzheimer's Disease: a study of epidemiological aspects. Annals of Neurology, 15, 335–341.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hodkinson, E., McCafferty, F. G., Scott, J. N., et al (1988) Disability and dependency in elderly people in residential and hospital care. Age & Ageing, 17, 147–154.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Huang, L. F., Cartwright, W. S. & Hu, T. W. (1988) The economic cost of senile dementia in the United States, 1985, Public Health Report, 103, 3–7.Google ScholarPubMed
Mc Khann, G., Drachman, D., Folstain, M., et al (1984) Clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease: report on the NINCDS–ADRDA work group under the auspices of Department of Health and Human Services Task Force on Alzheimer's Disease. Neurology. 34, 939–944.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Morrissey, E., Becker, J. & Rubert, M. (1990) Coping resources and depression in the caregiving spouses of Alzheimer's patterns. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 63, 161–171.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (1995) Main Economic indicators. Paris: Statistics Directorate.Google Scholar
Pfeiffer, E. (1995) Institutional placement for patients with Alzheimer's Disease. How to help families with a difficult decision. Postgroduate Medicine, 97, 125–132.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reisberg, B., Ferris, S. H., de Leon, M. J., et al (1988) The global deterioration scale (GDS). Psychopharmocology Bulletin, 24, 661–663.Google ScholarPubMed
Rocca, W. A., Amaducci, L. A. & Schoenberg, B. S. (1986) Epidemiology of clinically-diagnosed Alzheimer's Disease. Annals of Neurology, 19, 415–424.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rocca, W. A., Bonaiuto, S., Lippl, A., et al (1990) Prevalence of clinically diagnosed Aizheimer's Disease and other dementing disorders Neurology, 40, 626–631.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosen, W. G., Mohs, R. C. & Davis, K. L. (1984) A new rating scale for Alzheimer's Disease. American Journal of Psychiatry, 141, 1356–1364.Google ScholarPubMed
Schneider, E. L. & Guralnik, J. M. (1990) The ageing of America. Impact on Health Care costs. Journal of the American Medical Association, 263, 2335–2340.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Souêtre, E. J., Qing, W., Vigouroux, I., et al (1995) Economic analysis of Alzheimer's Disease in outpatients Impact of symptom severity. International Psychogeriatrics, 7, 115–122.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.