Gender Differences: A Lifetime Analysis of the Economic Burden of Alzheimer's Disease
Open accessAbstract
Background Gender is one of the best-established differences in risk for Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other forms of dementia, with women being at greater risk. However, the financial implications are unknown. This study aims at understanding the economic burden of AD by gender.Method This study takes a life-time perspective to investigate the burden of AD over the course of the disease. Nationally representative Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey data were used to estimate the course of illness of AD from age 65 to death and the incremental costs of AD on Medicare and Medicaid. Published data on the use and costs of assisted living facilities, home health care, and informal care were imputed into the course of illness to calculate the lifetime costs of these services.Results Females and males have distinctively different patterns of course of illness of AD. Women face higher risks of having AD (15.5% vs. 13.1%) and of serving as informal caregivers for AD patients (6.8% vs. 4.0%) before death. Medicare and Medicaid account for major payers of AD care for both genders, but the greatest economic challenge of AD to women is the cost of the informal care they deliver, resulting in women bearing six times the cost of men.Conclusion Public policy interventions that aim at curing or slowing the progress of AD will greatly benefit the welfare and economic status of women.
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Lifetime total costs were three times higher for women compared with men with Alzheimer's dementia, due to women having a longer duration of illness and spending more time in a nursing home.
“Another group of researchers found that lifetime total costs were three times higher for women compared with men with Alzheimer's dementia, due to women having a longer duration of illness and spending more time in a nursing home. 862”
From 2024 Alzheimer's disease facts and figures (2024) · cites this paper as [862]
The Duration and Course of Illness section reports that women lived longer after diagnosis and spent more time in long-term-care facilities than men. The paper also reports higher lifetime Medicare and Medicaid costs per female patient, but it does not report that total lifetime costs per female patient were three times higher. Table 1 gives a 3.8-to-1 ratio for aggregate costs across the Baby Boom generation, not costs per patient. (LLM, conf=0.89)
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- Authors
- Yang, Z., & Levey, A.
- Affiliations
- Emory University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Yang, Zhou
- ORCID
- Levey, Allan
- Venue
- Women's Health Issues
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2015-09
- Volume
- 25
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 436-440
- ISSN
- 1049-3867 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2166470979
- Cited by
- 40
- References
- 18
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 3
- FWCI
- 3.24
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Women s Health Issues (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Health Systems, Economic Evaluations, Quality of Life
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Alzheimer's disease research and treatments
- Keywords
- Alzheimer's disease, economic burden, gender differences, women, informal care, lifetime costs, clinical course, Medicare, Medicaid, assisted living, home health care, dementia
- MeSH terms
- Aged, Alzheimer Disease, Female, Medicare, Home Care Services, Humans, Male, Medicaid, Sex Characteristics, United States, Caregivers, Health Care Costs, Cost of Illness, Health Impact Assessment
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