Alzheimer’s Cost Burden Much Heavier for Women Than Men

Women are not only at greater risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease (AD) when compared to men; per capita, they also bear six times the cost of AD care that men do, reports a study published today in the journal Women’s Health Issues.

Authors Zhou Yang of Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health and Allan Levey of the Emory University School of Medicine used a lifetime perspective to calculate AD costs to women and men based on three factors: the probability of developing AD, the disease’s duration, and the required formal or informal care for the patients.

Women’s greater cost burden, they report, is largely due to the informal care they deliver to family members with Alzheimer’s disease and the lack of Medicaid relief for caregiving.

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