Worldwide economic costs and societal burden of dementia

Abstract

Dementia is the principal cause of functional dependence and institutionalization in the elderly and has already posed tremendous economic burden on the aging society. Thus, dementia has been recognized by the World Health Organization as a global public health priority. Here, we briefly introduce the conceptual and methodological issues of the cost-of-illness studies (COI) of dementia, summarize the major literature regarding the economic costs of dementia, and identify some key issues that need be addressed in future COI studies of dementia. We identified 17 COI studies that estimated the costs of dementia in different countries, in which the annual total costs per patient with dementia varied from US$2935 to US$64168. Differences in methodology, data sources, cost categories assessed, and severity of patients employed in the COI studies are likely to contribute to the substantial variations in cost estimates of dementia. Thus, to increase the comparability of findings from COI studies, the methodological issues need to be harmonized and standardized, and consensus on the methodological principles in the COI studies would be essential. Further well-designed COI studies of dementia could provide critical evidence to help develop health policy and improve allocation of healthcare resources.