Abstract

Objectives: Approximately 850,000 people are living with dementia in the UK. Based on demographic changes, this number could rise to over 1 million by 2025 and over 2 million by 2051. It is important to know the potential financial cost of such a prevalent condition, and the correlates of these costs, to better support people living with dementia and their carers.

Previous studies have found associations between the cost of dementia and the severity of dementia. These studies also suggest an association between costs and severity of behavioural disturbance symptoms. However, these are not recent studies and many did not include people living with dementia in residential care settings. We sought to determine key individual level characteristics associated with these costs with more recent, longitudinal data which included a sizeable number of people living with dementia in residential care.

Methods: Data from the Modelling Outcome and Cost Impacts of Interventions for Dementia (MODEM) cohort was used in the analysis. These data were collected from a cohort of dyads of people living with dementia and their carers, sampled in Sussex, England. Data was collected in face-to-face interviews at two time points, 12 months apart. The cost of dementia, encompassing health, social and unpaid care costs was estimated at each time point. Statistical regression analysis was used to determine individual (person with dementia and carer), demographic characteristics, associated with changes in the cost of dementia over a one year period.

Results*: At the 12 month visit, n=250 (78.6%) dyads completed the follow-up visit. Several individual characteristics are associated with the change in dementia related costs in the short term.

Conclusions: Further analysis is necessary to validate our findings of the individual level factors found to be associated with change in the cost of dementia in the short term. These results will help aid decision-makers in allocating interventions and services more efficiently, while keeping in mind the importance of considerations of equity.

*Details on the estimated costs of dementia care are embargoed until the Alzheimer’s Society Annual Conference held on 22 May 2018, and thus are not shown in this abstract. But they will be included in a later version of the abstract after that event.