"We found that the care-giving burden on family members increased substantially as cognitive impairment worsened," says Kenneth M. Langa, M.D., Ph.D., lead author of the study. "Those with mild dementia received 8.5 more hours of care per week than elders with normal cognitive function, who received only 4.6 hours of help per week. And those with severe dementia received 41.5 more hours of help per week than elders with normal cognition."

"Helping those with dementia places a significant burden on both families and society, and this burden increases sharply as the level of cognitive impairment progresses from mild to severe," says Langa, assistant professor of internal medicine at the U-M Medical School and faculty associate at the U-M Institute for Social Research.

To estimate the yearly costs of caring for older family members with dementia, the researchers calculated the number of weekly hours of help respondents reported receiving, adjusted for age, income, chronic health conditions besides dementia, and other factors, multiplied by the 1998 national average wage for a home health aide of $8.20 per hour, and then multiplied by 52 (weeks per year).

With the prevalence of Alzheimer's disease, the most common cause of dementia, projected to more than triple in the United States over the next 50 years, from about 2.3 million to 8.7 million cases, the impact to the U.S. economy is expected to be significant. Planning now by both government and individuals is becoming increasingly important. Most adults would be wise to look into purchasing some type of long-term care insurance in order to protect their resources for the future.