Alzeheimer's Disease: Estimates of Prevalence in the United States

摘要

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurological disease, devastating to patients andtheir families and friends. It is expected to cost this country billions of dollars annually, with severe consequences to patients and informal caregivers as well as to the health care system. Valid estimates of disease prevalence--that is, how many people have a disease at a given time--as well as projections of prevalence in the future, can play an important role in setting health research priorities and in identifying the need for services. A number of published studies have cited AD prevalence rates that range from 2 percent to 12 percent of the population older than 64. Meta-analysis is an analytic method that can be used, as we do in this report, to (1) estimate the number of people with AD, (2) project the numbers of people with AD in the near future, and (3) determine the prevalence rates of AD for both men and women of specific ages.