Objective: There is a complex interaction between Alzheimer's disease and related disorders (ADRD) and comorbid conditions which influence on resource utilization and costs of care. This talk will focus on ADRD, multimorbidity, comorbidity and costs.
Design: Cross-sectional data from a population based study.
Materials and Methods: Resource utilization and cost data have been collected as part of the Nordanstig project, a subproject to the Kungsholmen project in Sweden. Results from the baseline is presented with a focus on the influence of multimorbidity and cormorbidity.
Results: Annual costs of patients with Vascular dementia (VaD) and Alzheimerxs disease (AD) was SEK 250,000 and 205,000 respectively (1US$ ≈ SEK 9), indicating that cardiovascular comorbidities increase costs. There is a strong correlation between multmorbidity (including dementia) and costs, while the situation is more complex regarding costs of dementia and comorbidity. The impact of comorbidity on costs is greatest in mild dementia while in moderate and severe dementia the impact is smaller. In regression analysis, multimorbidity including dementia is a predictor of costs (but dependency in ADL is the strongest predictor) while comorbidity without dementia is a weak predictor.
Conclusion: Although it seems as the cognitive decline with associated symptoms, mainly functional decline, is the main predictor of resource utilization and costs, multimorbidity and comorbid conditions are factored that may be necessary to consider. This is of importance when e.g. intervention studies are designed.
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