A new report put out by researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the leading national public health institute in the United States, revealed new stats about Alzheimer's disease in America. The report showed the increase in deaths from the disease over the last decade-and-a-half, while also showing that more Americans were dying at home then in hospitals or hospice.
More Americans dying from Alzheimer's
The report for the CDC found that between 1999 and 2014 deaths from Alzheimer's disease in America rose by 54%. The exact number of Americans who died from the disease in 2014 was 93,451.
This large increase is a reflection of America's increasingly older population, high life expectancy and doctors getting better at identifying those who have the horrible disease. In the last year of the report, 2014, it was found that Alzheimer's disease was the sixth leading cause of deaths in the United States. The disease made up 3.6% of all deaths for that year.
Currently, Alzheimer's is the leading cause of dementia and affects 5.5 million adults in America. However, the disease will probably only become more common as America's population ages in conjunction with its declining birth rate. The older a person is the great the chance that they have to get Alzheimer's disease. By 2050, the number of Americans age 65 or older with the disease is expected to triple to about 13.8 million people.
The increase in deaths at home
Another surprising and interesting aspect of the CDC's report was that more Americans with Alzheimer's disease died at home as opposed to in a medical facility of some kind. In 1999, the percentage of people who died from the disease in any kind of medical facility was 14.7%. By 2014, that percentage had fallen by more than half to 6.6%.
In contrast, the percentage of people who died from the Alzheimer's at home in 1999 was 13.9%. By 2014, that number had almost doubled and gone all the way up to 24.9%.
The CDC report also noted in their report how the rapid rise in Alzheimer's deaths along with the growing number of people dying from the disease at home has added to the emotional and financial burden on those trying to take care of their sick family members. It suggests that family members and friends who take care of someone with the disease would be greatly benefited if they had greater access to case management, respite care and other help.
