Barring a medical breakthrough, the incidence and cost of Alzheimer’s disease on U.S. Latinos will grow exponentially by 2060, according to a report released by USC researchers.
According to the report, U.S. Latinos living with Alzheimer’s disease are projected to increase from 379,000 in 2012 to 1.1 million by 2030 and to 3.5 million by 2060 — a growth of 832 percent.
The researchers estimate the cumulative direct and indirect costs of Alzheimer’s disease on the U.S. Latino community, including millions of family caregivers, concluding it would ultimately cost the U.S. economy $373 billion by 2030 and $2.35 trillion — in 2012 dollars — by 2060.
“This timely report provides strong evidence of the rapidly escalating burden of Alzheimer’s disease on the U.S. Latino population,” said William Vega, co-author of the report and executive director of the USC Roybal Institute on Aging at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work .
“It is not only the growth of the prevalence that is concerning,” he said. “It is also the very high metabolic syndrome and diabetes rates that are fueling the increase in Alzheimer’s to levels well beyond expected rates in the U.S. population.”
Because of advanced aged and socioeconomic determinants, U.S. Latinos are 50 percent more likely to get Alzheimer’s than non-Latino whites, yet are less likely to receive a diagnosis from a physician, according to the researchers.
Despite an increased prevalence for Alzheimer’s and other diseases, clinical trial participation among U.S. Latinos is extremely low at about 1 percent, punctuating the need for increased efforts to engage U.S. Latinos in clinical research, according to the researchers.
The direct cost of Alzheimer’s includes expenditures for medical and long-term care, while indirect costs include unpaid informal care and earnings lost by people with the disease.
While U.S. Latinos are more likely to seek care options that are more affordable than non-Latino white Americans — for example, choosing adult day care versus nursing home care — the total cost of Alzheimer’s on U.S. Latinos will still outpace the cost for non-Latino whites, said report co-author Shinyi Wu.
“Latinos living with Alzheimer’s disease rely more heavily on informal care than more expensive options like nursing home care,” said Wu, senior scientist at the USC Roybal Institute on Aging and an associate professor at the USC School of Social Work.
“Due to demographic and family structure shifts among Latinos, there will be a lower ratio of younger generations able to take care of older generations living with Alzheimer’s, placing significant societal and economic stress on Latinos,” Wu said.
The report’s authors outlined a host of solutions that they say need immediate action, including:
— increasing research funding for Alzheimer’s to at least $2 billion annually, the level experts recommended in 2013 was the minimum needed to develop an effective treatment;
— collaborating with government, community, philanthropic, health and industry partners on developing and implementing culturally tailored community engagement and education efforts to promote Alzheimer’s and brain health literacy and early detection; and
— improving access to caregiver resources and informal training for caregivers in multiple languages.
“Latino families are increasingly in the crosshairs of this growing public health crisis and are among the least resourced to deal with the financial demand Alzheimer’s places on households and on family caregivers,” said Jason Resendez, a co-author of the report and executive director of the LatinosAgainstAlzheimer’s Network and Coalition.
“As the U.S. Latino older adult population grows dramatically over the next 30 years, Alzheimer’s will have far reaching implications for our nation’s healthcare system and economy if nothing is done to curb its devastating effects,” he said.
–City News Service