NEWS RELEASE
ALZHEIMER'S ASSOCIATION
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Four experts in the field of maintaining physical and cognitive health as we age will participate in a free seminar: “Still Me – Live Well as You Age” on Tuesday morning, June 4, in Fort Collins.
The latest research on aging well will be presented by a doctor of physical therapy, a nutrition specialist, a doctor of neuroscience who leads the Aging Clinic of the Rockies, and the former chancellor of University of Denver who serves on the board of the Alzheimer’s Association and is living with an Alzheimer’s diagnosis.
Scheduled for 10 a.m. to noon at the Drake Centre, 802 W. Drake Rd., Fort Collins, the “Still Me – Live Well as You Age” program includes these participants:
- Dr. Rebecca Chopp is a national board member of the Alzheimer's Association and co-founder of Voices of Alzheimer's. She is the former college president of Colgate, Swarthmore and the University of Denver. Her newly published book, “Still Me: Accepting Alzheimer’s Without Losing Yourself,” is already a best seller.
- Deana Davalos, PhD, is a professor in the cognitive neuroscience program in Colorado State University’s department of psychology. She also is the director of the Aging Clinic of the Rockies and associate director of the Columbine Health Systems Center for Healthy Aging. Her work focuses on developing methods to better understand pathological aging, strategies for improving healthy aging and preventing or reducing cognitive decline.
- Dr. Maggie Thompson is owner and founder of Refuge Physiotherapy in Windsor. After completing her doctorate in physical therapy at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, she completed a post-doctorate through the American Academy of Manipulative Therapy in Oklahoma City. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Manual Physical Therapy.
- Amber Webb is a Colorado State University Extension Family & Consumer Sciences specialist in Larimer County. She specializes in food preservation, home consumer food safety and culinary nutrition. Webb earned undergraduate degrees in food science & human nutrition as well as sociology from Colorado State University and a graduate degree in food studies from Chatham University.
The program is sponsored by the Alzheimer’s Association, CSU’s Aging Clinic of the Rockies, Larimer County and the county’s CSU Extension, Refuge Physiotherapy, Columbine Health System (CHS) and CHS’s Center for Healthy Aging at CSU. To register for the program, go to bit.ly/StillMe_ALZ.
2024 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts & Figures – Colorado & U.S.
- 6.9 million people in the United States age 65 and older are living with Alzheimer’s disease or another form of dementia
- Projected to increase to nearly 14 million by 2060
- About 1 in 9 people in the U.S. (10.9 per cent) age 65 and older has Alzheimer’s dementia
Two national studies report that between 17 per cent and 22 per cent of people age 65 and older are living with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), which can be a precursor to Alzheimer’s disease. One-third of all people 65+ in the U.S. have either MCI or dementia
The percentage of people with Alzheimer’s dementia increases with age: five per cent of people ages 65-74, 13.2 per cent of people ages 75 to 84, and 33.4 per cent of people age 85 and older have Alzheimer’s dementia
- Under age 65: Although prevalence studies of younger-onset dementia in the U.S. are limited, researchers believe about 110 of every 100,000 people age 30 to 64 – about 200,000 people in the U.S. in total (above and beyond the 6.9 million) – have younger-onset dementia
- Women make up two-thirds of those diagnosed with Alzheimer’s
- Black Americans are twice as likely as whites to be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s
- Hispanic Americans are 50% more likely than whites to be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s
- Alzheimer’s is the 7th-leading cause of death of people in the U.S., but the 5th-leading cause of death among individuals age 65 and older
- It kills more people than breast cancer and prostate cancer combined
- It is the only leading cause of death without a prevention or cure
- From 2020 to 2021, deaths from heart disease decreased 2.1 per cent and deaths from HIV dropped 65.6 per cent while deaths from Alzheimer’s disease, as recorded on death certificates, increased 141 per cent
The Cost of Alzheimer’s
- Nearly $1 of every $5 in Medicare funds is spent on people with Alzheimer’s and other dementias
- By 2050, that is projected to increase to $1 of every $3
- $360 billion projected for 2024: the U.S. cost of caring for people living with Alzheimer’s (not including the costs of informal caregiving)
- The total lifetime cost of care (including out-of-pocket costs, Medicare, Medicaid expenditures and informal caregiving) for someone with dementia was estimated at $392,874
- Researchers found the lifetime cost of care for individuals with Alzheimer's was more than twice the amount incurred by individuals without dementia, translating into an incremental lifetime cost of Alzheimer’s dementia of $240,046
- The average (2021) out-of-pocket annual expenditures for caregivers: $12,388
- The average annual per-person payments for health care and long-term care services for persons age 65 and over (in 2023 – from all sources) with Alzheimer's or dementia are $43,644 vs. $14,660 for those without dementia
- In 2023, 11.5 million Alzheimer’s family caregivers provided an estimated 18.4 billion hours of unpaid care (an average of nearly 31 hours per caregiver per week), which were valued (at the median cost of a home health aide) at $346.6 billion
- For comparison, that is nearly 15 times the total revenue of McDonald’s in 2022 ($23.3 billion)
- The amount of time required for caregiving increases as dementia progresses. One study showed that people with dementia required 151 hours of caregiving per month at the outset of dementia, and this increased to 283 hours per month eight years later.
- 90,800 Coloradans are living with Alzheimer’s
- Projected to rise to 92,000 by 2025
- In Colorado, 1,778 died from Alzheimer’s in 2021, the most recent figure available
- More than 177,000 Coloradans are serving as unpaid caregivers, providing an estimated 307 million hours of support in 2023 valued at more than $7.2 billion
The Alzheimer’s Association of Colorado provides all of its services (educational programs, support groups and informational services) at no charge to Colorado families. The Association’s free 24/7 bilingual Helpline is 800-272-3900. Information also is available at www.alz.org.
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