Alzheimer's Disease Impact

Economic impact of Alzheimer’s Disease: According to data collected in 1991, a patient suffering from AD would use $174,000 during his or her lifetime for treatment. The Alzheimer’s Association suggests that a little more than 70 percent of the patients suffering from AD choose to live at home and 75 percent of the care they receive is from their family and friends. The depressive symptoms experienced by the patient and other neuropsychiatric symptoms greatly affect the quality of life for both the patient and his or her caregiver. The severity of the symptoms experienced by the patient further increases the long term care cost along with the time that the caregiver would have to spend with the diseased person. Previous research indicates
that roughly thirty percent of the yearly cost of AD is allotted to dealing with the neuropsychiatric symptoms experienced by the patient (Manju, 2005). Generally, Alzheimer's disease is believed to cost the US health care system a huge sum of $100 billion per annum (Small et al., 1997) . In addition, the general cost of treatment for early, middle, and late stage Alzheimer's disease patients on a per year basis was $ 18,000, $30,000, and $36,000 according to an estimate carried out by the U.S General Accounting Office (GAO). In general, it was also ascertained by the GAO that severity of Alzheimer's disease added to the costs by a margin of $ 80 on a monthly basis, and increased the costs of care for those patients in residential care environments by $1,800 per month. When discussing the treatment of AD, it is vital to include the cost measures that will be attributed to alternative treatment options such as exercise, music and audio stimulation therapy, etc. Usually the nursing homes or the caregivers will carry out these alternative treatment options alongside the commonly used drug treatments. All the costs accruing from these treatment measures should be monitored (Manju, 2005). The GAO also stated in the same year that care received at a nursing home (as part of institutionalized care) would save the institution an estimated sum of $ 9,000 per year. This conservation of costs holds the most significance for local and national Medicaid plans (Cheng CK, Leon, J, Neumann, PJ, 1998). So, this proves that care for the demented or the person suffering from AD must be carried out in a nursing home in order to lower the elevated costs that our health care system faces. Therefore, it is imperative that African Americans are screened for the disease in the earliest most stages to prevent the increased accruing of costs that would result from the further progression of the disease upon being diagnosed late (Leifer, 2003).
How AD impacts African Americans: The 2010 US Census indicated that about twenty percent of the people who were at least sixty five years of age and older were considered a minority in terms of race and ethnicity.
This is valid in terms of the African American community. The growing rate of the elderly population in the African American community has highlighted the notion of the persistence of Alzheimer's disease in that community (Barnes & Bennett, 2014). African-Americans are twice as likely to develop late onset AD compared to their Caucasian counterparts. In addition, African Americans do not get diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease at the proper time. They get diagnosed at the late stages of the disease, with as much as a gap of seven years, because of the fact that they do not contact a physician in a timely manner. It is because their caregivers are not sure about the severity of the problem, attribute their memory loss to the normal process of aging, and find it difficult to tell the patient that he or she has dementia because of the possibility that the patient may become angry, and therefore, may not agree to see a physician at all. Interpersonally, Alzheimer's disease can impact blacks adversely because they tend to become lost (in terms of place) and display inexplicable anger towards others. In addition, Alzheimer's disease causes great sorrow in African American families because the family members find it quite painful to acknowledge that their loved one
has dementia. Furthermore, many African Americans do not show up for their regular appointments even when they get diagnosed for AD by their physicians. This can lead to problems with its treatment, and the potential curbing of its progress (Clark, Kutner, Goldstein, Peterson-Hazen, Garner, Zhang & Bowles, 2005). Furthermore, African Americans also suffer from vascular ailments (such as cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, and renal disease) which can increase their chances of developing Alzheimer's disease (Barnes & Bennett, 2014). For example, diabetes can increase the risk for stroke because of the presence of blood clots below the cerebral cortex (or the thin layer of gray matter that covers the brain), which can further lead to impairment in terms of cognition (Barnes & Bennett, 2014). African Americans also face a greater probability of developing AD because of the presence of high levels of obesity within their community. Being overweight can have a major impact on conditions such as diabetes, metabolism, and hypertension. All of these factors can increase the risk for the acquisition of dementia (including Alzheimer's disease) (Barnes & Bennett, 2014). One particular challenge that African Americans face is that there is not enough research conducted in terms of AD with respect to their community despite the acknowledgement of the notion that African Americans have an elevated probability of having this disease. Research that has been conducted in terms of non-Latino whites in terms of the treatment, management, and diagnosis of AD has been applied to the African American community. This void in terms of information about the specifics of AD among the African American community, creates a big hindrance because of the uncertainty about the way AD manifests itself and impacts the African American community (Barnes & Bennett, 2014). Due to the limited nature of AD research with reference to the African American community, the prevalence rates for AD and dementia have remained the same in the year 1992 compared to the year 2001 according to an Indianapolis study (Hall et al., 2009). However, the secondary data sources reviewed during this research endeavor (master's thesis) will facilitate in addressing the following hypothesis: how to reduce the pervasiveness of AD amongst the African American community in the United States? Genetically, African Americans have elevated levels of the apolipoprotein E-e4 (APOE4) gene in conjunction with the novel ABCA7 gene.
Both these genes have to do with the transport of cholesterol in the body, and the metabolism of cholesterol has been shown to have a significant impact on the development of AD. In addition, some African Americans have lived in non-urban environments during childhood (because of low socioeconomic status), and have a mediocre quality of education. As a result of their quality and level of education, some African Americans face impediments during the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease because they do not score well on tests which ascertain their capabilities of cognition and reasoning . All of these reasons can also promote the development of AD in their community (Barnes & Bennett,
2014).