Who is Impacted by Alzheimer's Disease?- An estimated 5.1 million Americans have Alzheimer's disease. This includes 4.9 million Americans over the age of 65. An estimated 300,000 Canadians over the age of 65 have the disease as well.
- A total of 13%, or one in eight persons over age 65, have Alzheimer's disease.
- Nearly half of all persons over the age of 85 have Alzheimer's disease.
- Every 72 seconds someone in America develops Alzheimer's disease. By mid-century, someone will develop Alzheimer's disease every 33 seconds.
- The number of people age 65 and older with Alzheimer's disease is estimated to be 7.7 million in 2030, a greater than 50% increase over the number currently affected.
- By 2010, the number of new Alzheimer's cases is expected to total 454,000 a year. That is projected to increase to 615,000 new cases a year by 2030, and 959,000 new cases a year by 2050.
- An estimated 17% of Canadians have someone with Alzheimer's disease in their family.
- An estimated 97,000 Canadians will develop Alzheimer's or a related disease in 2008.
Sources:
1, 7, 8: Alzheimer's Society of Canada,
http://www.alzheimer.ca/english/media/adfacts200B.htm1-6: "Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures 2007," from the Alzheimer's Association,
online at
http://www.alz.org/national/documents/ReporC2007FactsAndFigures.pdf.
Who Provides Alzheimer's Care? - Almost 10 million Americans are caring for a person with Alzheimer's disease or another dementia. This figure constitutes about 29% of all caregivers of people age 60 and older.
- Seventy percent of people with Alzheimer's and other dementias live at home, where they are cared for by family and friends.
- Nearly one in four caregivers with Alzheimer's disease and other dementias provide 40 hours a week or more of care.
- A total of 65% of Alzheimer's caregivers perform physically demanding kinds of personal care such as bathing, feeding and toileting.
- Unpaid caregivers to those with Alzheimer's disease provided the nation with an economic assetworth nearly $83 billion in 2005, based on their hours of care.
- In the Canadian Study of Health and Aging (CSHA), community-dwelling older subjects with dementia received an average of 63 hours of informal assistance from their primary caregivers per month; those without dementia received help for an average of 44 hours per month from a primary caregiver.
Sources:
1-5: "Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures 2007," from the Alzheimer's Association, online at
http://www.alz.org/national/documents/ReporC2007FactsAndFigures.pdf6: "Public Health Agency of Canada", Research on Alzheimer's Caregiving in Canada: Current status and future directions;
http://wwwphac-aspc.gc.ca/publicatlcdic-mccl2S-31c_e.html