The overall costs of Alzheimer's disease (AD) are staggering, but not immediately meaningful to individuals and families facing the disease. In 1991, the direct costs for providing care (such as medications, doctors' fees, and nursing home care) for Alzheimer's disease patients in the United States were approximately 20.6 billion dollars. Indirect costs, such as loss of productivity of those suffering Alzheimer's disease and loss of productivity of those caring for these individuals, added an additional 55.7 billion dollars, to yield a grand total cost of 76.3 billion (1991) dollars. The current estimate is over 100 billion dollars a year.

More to the point for individual families, the largest part of the direct costs of caring for Alzheimer's disease patients comes from nursing home care. The average cost of nursing home care has been estimated by the Alzheimer's Association to be $42,000 per year with cost exceeding $70,000 per year in some areas of the country. The Association also estimated the average lifetime cost per patient to be $174,000. For comparison, the average cost for college undergraduate education is $22,520 per year (Digest of Education Statistics, 2002).

Whether considering global, family or individual numbers, the cost of Alzheimer's disease is enormous. Often these costs far exceed the resources of individuals with AD and their families.

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