Mortality Trends for Alzheimer's Disease, 1979-91

In 1991 Alzheimer's disease accounted for 14,112 deaths in the United States. Of the 14,112 deaths, 13,768 were to persons 65 years of age and over. Alzheimer's disease would be the 11th leading cause of death for persons aged 65 years and over, if it were separately identified in the standard tabulation list that does not include underlying causes such as Alzheimer's disease. These and other statistics are presented in a new report Mortality Trends for Alzheimer's Disease, 1979-91. This report describes mortality patterns for Alzheimer's disease, for both underlying and multiple causes of death. Deaths and death rates are shown by age, race, sex, and State.

Data Highlights:

Age-adjusted death rates for Alzheimer's disease are greater for men than for women. In 1991 the death rate for men aged 65 years and over was 30.8 (per 100,000 population) compared with 28.1 for women (per 100,000 population), a difference of 10 percent. For women, rates increased almost every year from 1979 to 1991 while increases for men appeared to have stopped about 1987.

Age-adjusted death rates for Alzheimer's disease are substantially greater for the white population (30.6) than for the black population (18.5).

Alzheimer's disease death rates differ by State, with the largest rates being observed for the States in the Northwestern and Northeastern areas and the lowest rates observed for States in the Middle-Atlantic area of the United States.

This page last reviewed January 11, 2007