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Brief Description:

New analysis suggests that about 3.4 million Americans age 71 and older - that's one in seven people in that age group - have dementia. And 2.4 million of them have Alzheimer's disease.

Transcript:

SCHMALFELDT: New analysis suggests that about 3.4 million Americans age 71 and older - that's one in seven people in that age group - have dementia. And 2.4 million of them have Alzheimer's disease. The Aging, Demographics and Memory Study - also known as the ADAMS study - is the latest attempt to assess the prevalence of dementia and Alzheimer's disease, which is the most common form of dementia. Dr. Richard Suzman, Director of the Behavioral and Social Research Program at the National Institute on Aging, explained why this study is unique.

SUZMAN: Well, this is the first national study that has tried to estimate how many people in the U.S. have dementia or Alzheimer's disease. All of the prior studies were small, community studies, for example one in East Boston, one in Chicago. Additionally, the ADAMS Study is part of the Health and Retirement Study, a much larger study, and as such it has some of the best data on economic status, family wealth, so one is going to be able to track the impact of dementia and Alzheimer's in terms of the disruption to the family, the personal cost, the economic cost, etc., far better than any other study has.

SCHMALFELDT: The study included 856 participants in the Health and Retirement Study, age 71 and older from 42 states. Dr. Suzman explained why this kind of research is so vital.

SUZMAN: Alzheimer's disease now affects about 2.5 million people. One in seven Americans over age 70 has dementia, and it's very strongly related to age. So over age 80, the fraction of people with dementia climbs dramatically. And as the "baby boom" ages, we're going to see the number of people ages 80 to 85 and over expand by four or five times. So it's absolutely critical that we have an appreciation now of the public health burden that these diseases cause and tackle them as best we can.

SCHMALFELDT: The study was published online in the journal Neuroepidemiology. From the National Institutes of Health, I'm Bill Schmalfeldt in Bethesda, Maryland.