Alzheimer's disease progression: health and social care costs

Previous studies have shown a positive relationship between disease severity and cost, usually using cognition as a proxy for disease severity and short-term cross-sectional data.

This study explored the factors affecting time to institutionalisation and estimate the relationship between the costs of care and disease progression measured by cognitive function, behavioural scores and activities of daily living.

It is based on a retrospective re-analysis of data collected as part of a prospective study of 100 patients with Alzheimer's disease or vascular dementia, followed up at 4-monthly intervals until death for a maximum of 10 years.

It was found that changes in both Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and Barthel scores have independent and significant marginal effects on costs and both measures were also significantly negatively associated with the hazard of institutionalisation.

Publications

Wolstenholme J, Fenn P, Gray AM, Keene J, Hope T, Jacoby R. Estimating the Relationship Between Disease Progression and Cost of Care in Dementia, British Journal of Psychiatry 2002; 181: 36-42. Download this article