A recent study published in Value in Health by Julia Fox – a 3rd year PhD student at the CHOICE Institute – and coauthors reveals the staggering indirect costs of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), emphasizing the financial impact of unpaid caregiving and lost productivity across all stages of the disease.
They find that total annual indirect costs increase significantly with disease progression, ranging from $36,934 for mild cognitive impairment due to AD to $145,250 for severe AD. In total, these indirect costs amount to approximately $832 billion per year in the United States, including $599 billion in unpaid caregiving costs and $233 billion in productivity losses.
This study underscores the importance of incorporating indirect costs—such as caregiver burden and patient productivity loss—into economic evaluations of AD treatments. These findings provide critical support for including indirect costs in cost-effectiveness modeling and healthcare decision-making.
Publication: https://www.valueinhealthjournal.com/article/S1098-3015(24)06759-7/fulltext