Worldwide cost for dementia $315 billion

23-Apr-2007

The total worldwide cost of dementia care is estimated to be $315.4 billion annually, according to new a new study by researchers at Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet. The study authors points out that the figures, published in the April 2007 issue of the peer-reviewed magazine Alzheimer´s & Dementia, are higher than previously reported data.

The new figures were based on an estimated world dementia population of 29.3 million persons. Of the total costs, 77 percent occurred in the world's more developed regions, which have 46 percent of the dementia prevalence.

$315.4 billion is higher than the total budget of all but eight of the world´s countries. According to the 2007 CIA World Factbook, only the U.S., Japan, Germany, France, U.K., Italy, China and Spain have 2007 budget expenditures greater that $315.4 billion.

"The total worldwide costs of dementia are enormous, and the increasing numbers of elderly pose a challenge for care systems and societies worldwide", says Anders Wimo, Professor at Karolinska Institutet Alzheimer Disease Research Center and the study´s lead author. "Research into the field of dementia is therefore of high relevance and has the potential to affect the lives of great numbers of people."

Original publication: Anders Wimo, Bengt Winblad and Linus Jönsson; "An Estimate of the Total Worldwide Societal Costs of Dementia in 2005"; Alzheimer´s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer´s Association 2007.

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