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Alzheimer disease: progress or profit?

Nature Medicine volume 12, pages 780–784 (2006)Cite this article

Alzheimer disease is the most common cause of dementia. According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 37 million people worldwide currently have dementia; Alzheimer disease affects about 18 million of them1.

Increasing age is the greatest risk factor for Alzheimer disease. Its prevalence approximately doubles every five years after the age of 60—one in 10 individuals over 65 years and nearly half of those over 85 are affected by the disease. So, although the incidence rate of Alzheimer disease is not thought to be changing, Alzheimer disease poses one of the greatest threats to the future of healthcare systems, owing to the anticipated demographic shift to an aging population—the number of people worldwide above the age of 60 years is expected to double over the next 25 years.

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Figure 1
Figure 2: Actual and estimated financial costs of Alzheimer disease in the US6.

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  1. Wood Mackenzie, London, EC2N 1HN, UK

    Claire Mount & Christian Downton

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  2. Christian Downton
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Correspondence to Claire Mount.

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Mount, C., Downton, C. Alzheimer disease: progress or profit?. Nat Med 12, 780–784 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm0706-780

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