Source: Alzheimer’s Disease International

Dementia has the potential to have a devastating impact on the public health systems of Asia Pacific countries. This is not only because of the greying of the population but because dementia is among the most disabling of all chronic diseases. The burden of disease is measured by the number of years of healthy life lost as a consequence of a condition. It is the sum of the immortality burden (the years of life lost due to premature death) and the disability burden (the years of healthy life lost due to disability). Based on World Health Organization data there is evidence to suggest that:

• Neuropsychiatric conditions are second only in disability burden to infectious and parasitic diseases.
• The disease burden of dementia exceeds that of malaria, tetanus, breast cancer, drug abuse or war and:
• The disease burden from dementia is projected to increase by over 76% over the next quarter century.

How this translates in terms of costs in public health will vary greatly depending on the country and what mix of care is provided, although costs will rise relative to gross domestic product as prevalence increases. The most effective way to make savings would be if the onset of dementia could be delaprevention approaches arising from new research.  http://www.alz.co.uk/research/files/apreport.pdf