Americans With Alzheimer's Now Number 5.7 Million

A report from the Alzheimer's Association estimates that the number of Americans with Alzheimer's and other dementias has climbed from 5.5 million in 2017 to 5.7 million today, reports Next Avenue . The 2018 Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures report forecasts 7.1 million Americans aged 65 and older will have Alzheimer's by 2025, rising to about 13.8 million by 2050. "The projections in the new report that by 2050 we're going to be seeing over a two-and-a-half-fold increase in Alzheimer's dementia prevalence is pretty accurate, and that is really driven by the aging of the population," says UCLA Fielding School of Public Health Professor Ron Brookmeyer. Women make up 66 percent of people with Alzheimer's, possibly because women live longer than men. Still, the Alzheimer's Association's Keith Fargo says researchers agree "that the age-specific risk for Alzheimer's is probably the same between men and women." The report predicts dementia-related spending on care will rise to more than $1 trillion by 2050, if current trends continue. Last year, relatives and other unpaid caregivers contributed 18.4 billion hours in care, at an estimated value of $232 billion. "Now that we're beginning to understand the pathogenesis of the disease, there's an excitement in the field for developing preventions," Brookmeyer says. "If we can delay the onset for just a couple of years, that would have a huge public health impact — on quality of life, on caregivers, and on the cost of dealing with this problem."