Dementia Cost Burns Up 1% of Global GDP, Will Grow

Alzheimer’s and other dementias will cost 1 percent of the gross domestic product globally this year and that treatment tab will grow, making urgent the need for more research toward a cure, an advocacy group said.

Seventy percent of an estimated $604 billion will be paid in North America and Western Europe, the group, London-based Alzheimer’s Disease International, said in a report today. The global price will exceed $1 trillion annually by 2030, with 65.7 million people affected, up from 35.6 million in 2010, according to the report. Alzheimer’s strikes mostly people 65 or older.