Report: Georgia to have heavy Alzheimer’s burden

ALBANY — A report released earlier this week by the Alzheimer’s Association shows a grim picture concerning the impact dementia has on Georgia. Perhaps even more troubling: The impact is expected to get worse in the coming years.

For the second year in a row, total payments to care for individuals living with Alzheimer’s or other dementias will surpass a quarter of a trillion dollars nationwide, an increase of nearly $20 billion from last year, data from the Alzheimer’s Association’s “2018 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures” report said.

“To me, just the growth and continued epidemic (is what stands out),” Buffy Warren Hankinson, program and services director for the Alzheimer’s Association Georgia Chapter office in Tifton, said. “Every 65 seconds, someone is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Just four years ago, it was every 69 seconds.”

The number of older Americans is growing rapidly, as is the number of people living with Alzheimer’s. By 2050, the total cost of care for Alzheimer’s is projected to increase to more than $1.1 trillion, in part due to projected cost increases of resources typically used to care for dementia patients.

The report notes that brain changes associated with Alzheimer’s may occur 20 or more years before symptoms appear, giving a long-term picture of how the condition can impact one individual. It also explains the other forms of dementia that are recognized, the symptoms and diagnostic criteria, who may be most at risk, how dementia is currently managed, what the future is expected to hold, deaths associated with the disease, burdens associated with dementia placed on the individuals as well as their caregivers, and the cost of caring for people with dementia.

“This year’s report not only shows the impact Alzheimer’s has on our nation, but the overwhelming impact on our state,” Alzheimer’s Association Georgia Chapter Executive Director Linda Davidson said in a statement. “Georgia is expected to see a 35 percent increase in people with Alzheimer’s by 2025. Without an effective treatment, this will lead to enormous costs to society.”

The number of individuals expected to be impacted by dementia is anticipated to escalate rapidly in coming years, as the population of Americans age 65 and older is projected to grow from 53 million this year to 88 million by 2050. One in 10 people age 65 and older has Alzheimer’s, and the percentage of people with Alzheimer’s dementia increases with age — with 81 percent of people suffering from Alzheimer’s dementia being 75 or older, the report said.

The strain on Alzheimer’s caregivers can last several years and result in declines in caregivers’ physical, emotional and financial well-being. In 2017, 16 million Americans provided an estimated 18.4 billion hours of unpaid care in the form of physical, emotional and financial support – a contribution valued at $232.1 billion. The difficulties associated with providing this level of care are estimated to have resulted in $11.4 billion in additional health care costs for Alzheimer’s and other dementia caregivers in 2017.

Some families are lucky enough to be able to afford private-pay care, and others are able to pay for care if they qualify for Medicaid. Hankinson said many families fall into a gap in which neither is an option, so a caregiver in that situation will have to sacrifice their job and financial security — which becomes more burdensome as time goes on.

“Alzheimer’s, as it progresses, is one that requires 24-hour care,” she said.

Mortality from Alzheimer’s disease continues to rise. New data from the report show that deaths from Alzheimer’s disease have more than doubled, increasing 123 percent between 2000 and 2015. Studies indicate that people age 65 and older survive an average of four to eight years after a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s, but some live as long as 20 years.

Hankinson said the outlook in south Georgia is consistent with what the report indicates. In fact, there is potential for it to be worse because of limited health care and respite options that would aid both an early diagnosis and give relief to caregivers.

“Early diagnosis is key, just so you can make plans for yourself and your family, (and you may get) medications that can slow down the disease,” she said.

The treatment options mainly help the symptoms rather than the disease itself, which is one of the contributors to the devastating impact. The hope is that there will soon be treatment that can weaken Alzheimer’s, if not cure it completely.

“We are now closer than ever,” Hankinson said. “It is bleak, but we do have hope. Research is becoming more and more prevalent.”

The “Facts and Figures” report includes other statistics related to Alzheimer’s for Georgia and across the country, including:

— An estimated 5.7 million Americans of all ages are living with Alzheimer’s this year. Of those, 140,000 are Georgia residents. This excludes those who have not been diagnosed, a problem in rural areas where there is limited access to care.

— By 2025, the number of people 65 and older with Alzheimer’s is estimated to reach 7.1 million – an increase of almost 29 percent from the number in the same age group affected this year. In Georgia, the estimated number of individuals with Alzheimer’s will be 190,000 by that time.

— Two-thirds of Americans over age 65 with Alzheimer’s, 3.4 million, are women.

— By midcentury, someone in the U.S. will develop the disease every 33 seconds.

— Alzheimer’s is the sixth-leading cause of death in the U.S., and it is the fifth-leading cause of death for those age 65 and older. In Georgia, 3,714 died from Alzheimer’s in 2015.

— In Georgia, the report estimated total Medicaid costs for Americans 65 and older with dementia is $1.1 billion for this year. In the next seven years, that figure is expected to increase by 40 percent.

— The estimated lifetime cost of caring for an individual living with dementia is $341,840.

— Total payments this year for all individuals with Alzheimer’s or other dementias are estimated at $277 billion. Medicare and Medicaid are expected to cover $186 billion of the total health care and long-term care payments for people with Alzheimer’s or other dementias. Out-of-pocket spending is expected to be $60 billion, or 22 percent of total payments.

— Forty-eight percent all caregivers who provide help to older adults do so for someone with Alzheimer’s or another dementia. Approximately two-thirds of caregivers are women, and one-third of dementia caregivers are daughters.

— This year, about 2.1 million people who have Alzheimer’s are 85 or older. When the first wave of baby boomers reaches 85 in 2031, it is projected that more than 3 million people that age and older will have Alzheimer’s.

— In Georgia last year, 527,000 caregivers provided $600 million in unpaid care valued at $7.577 billion.

— In Georgia during 2015, there were 1,528 emergency room visits per 1,000 Medicare beneficiaries related to Alzheimer’s, with 21.1 percent of hospital stays being followed by readmission within 30 days.

— This year in Georgia, $1.114 billion will be spent in Medicaid costs due to dementia, a number expected to increase to $1.565 billion by 2025. Georgia had 44,444 Medicare beneficiaries admitted to hospice in 2015, 22 percent of whom had a primary diagnosis of dementia.

— The potential cost savings for the current U.S. population from an early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s is $7.9 trillion.

The full text of the Facts and Figures report, including the accompanying special report, can be viewed at www.alz.org/facts.

The Alzheimer’s Association is a voluntary health organization in Alzheimer’s care, support and research. For more information, visit the Alzheimer’s Association at www.alz.org or call the 24/7 helpline at (800) 272-3900.