Global costs of dementia
Wednesday September 22nd, 2010
Governments across the world are “woefully unprepared” to cope with the £388 billion global cost of looking after people with dementia, according to a major report published yesterday.
A landmark report by Alzheimer's Disease International (ADI) said the costs equate to one per cent of global GDP and warned that the social and economic costs of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias will only get worse as the numbers of sufferers increases.
The Global Economic Impact of Dementia, published yesterday on World Alzheimer’s Day, is a huge “wake-up call” to governments because numbers of those diagnosed with the disease will double by 2030 and more than triple by 2050, said Dr Daisy Acosta, chairman of ADI.
“This is a wake-up call that Alzheimer's disease and other dementias are the single most significant health and social crisis of the 21st century,” she said. “World governments are woefully unprepared for the social and economic disruptions this disease will cause.”
The report, written by Professor Anders Wimo of the Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, and Professor Martin Prince, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, calculated the cost of unpaid care by relatives, medical bills and social care of caring for the 35.6 million living with dementia, 750,000 of whom live in the UK.
They said if dementia care were a country, it would be the world's 18th largest economy and if it were a company, it would be the world's largest by annual revenue, exceeding Wal-Mart at £265.6 billion and Exxon Mobil, £200 billion.
If dementia care were a country, it would be the world's 18th largest economy, the report reveals. If it were a company, it would be the world's largest by annual revenue exceeding Wal-Mart (US$414 billion) and Exxon Mobil (US$311 billion).
The report calls on governments to follow the lead of France, Australia and England in developing national plans to deal with the social and health consequences of dementia.
It also urged governments and other major funders to drastically increase research funding after recent data found that in the UK a 15-fold increase was required to reach parity with research into heart disease, and a 30-fold increase to achieve parity with cancer research.
Ruth Sutherland, interim chief executive of Alzheimer's Society, said: “These shocking statistics provide yet more proof that we cannot afford to ignore the growing global dementia crisis. These sky high figures represent not only a huge economic burden but also reflect the immeasurable impact dementia has on the lives of millions of people across the world.”
In the UK, the government promised to step up efforts to improve care, treatment and research soon.
A spokesman for the Department of Health said: "We welcome the publication of the World Alzheimer Report 2010, which emphasises the scale of the problem posed by dementia in the UK."
Tags: Europe | Geriatric Health | World Health
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