Running head: ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE 1

Sociology of Alzheimer's disease

Name: Hadis Alamfard

UG:1701939

Name: Arezo Bahrami abkari

UG:1701818

University of Georgia
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Abstract

Alzheimer's is a disease that causes degenerate brain cells that leads to a decline in thinking,

behavioral, and social skills that disrupts a person's ability to function properly.

The early signs of it are forgetting recent events, furthermore, it leads to losing the ability to

carry out everyday tasks.

Medication for Alzheimer patients can improve symptoms or slow the rate of decline but there is

no current treatment that fully cures this disease.(Alzheimer’s Disease - Symptoms and Causes -

Mayo Clinic, n.d.)

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Sociology of Alzheimer's disease

Comparing mortality ratios and life expectancies on patients in the result of the early and late-

stage will show that Alzheimer's disease is an important impairment in an elderly individual.

The early-onset disease is uncommon and follows with high mortality and morbidity. The late-

onset disease is more common and follows much less morbidity and mortality.

Alzheimer's disease is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States today. Researchers

expect that Alzheimer disease reach 7.7 million by 2030.(Alzheimer’s Dementia: Morbidity and

Mortality - PubMed, n.d.)

Etiology and risk factors

Still, the etiology of Alzheimer's disease is unclear but both genetic and non-genetic

factors are thought to take part, Epidemiologic researches find that genetic factors plays

important role in the development of both early-onset AD (EOAD) and late-onset AD (LOAD).

mutations in APP, PSEN1, and PSEN2 are directly lead to the EOAD, while recent genome-wide

association studies have identified numbers of risky genes, which influences the susceptibility to

LOAD. non-genetic factors, like occupational exposures (exposure to pesticides, electromagnetic

fields, organic solvents, and volatile anesthetics), pre-existing medical conditions

(cerebrovascular disease, hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia, traumatic brain injury,

depression, and cancer) and lifestyle factors (smoking, consumptions of alcohol and coffee, body

mass index, physical activity, and cognitive activity), are partly environmentally-

determined.these non-genetic factors can make opportunities for prevention and treatment of AD.

(Jiang et al., n.d.)

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Economic impact of Alzheimer's disease

Insanity to Alzheimer's disease is placing substantial medical, social, psychological, and

financial burdens on patients, their families, and their communities. Persons with Alzheimer's

disease require both “formal” medical and social services and “informal” services, usually

provided by family members.

formal and informal care for each patient with AD in northern California may cost as high as

$47,000 per year whether the patient lives at home or in a nursing home. The overall annual cost

associated with all types of dementia patients approximately $20 billion shows that more than

three-fourths (76 percent) is for social services such as daycare, respite care, home-delivered

meals, and homemaker/chore services, followed by hospital care (13 percent), medical items and

physician visits (4 percent each), medications (2 percent), other goods and services (less than 1

percent), and skilled nursing facility services (less than 1 percent). for direct costs and $38

billion for informal care. In the United Kingdome the cost of care Over the three months, the

total cost per control subject (£387) was minor compared with the mean cost incurred by patients

with mild (£6616), moderate (£10 250) and severe (£13 593) Alzheimer's disease.

Informal care costs are almost three times the cost of formal care for persons with Alzheimer's

disease in the community.(The Economic Impact of Alzheimer’s Disease. - PsycNET, n.d.)

Both formal and informal care services are estimated. Formal services refer to those rendered for

a price in the traditional medical and social service marketplace, where dollars are explicitly

exchanged for services. Informal services refer to services rendered outside those markets and

for which providers are not reimbursed.

So The cost of care for an Alzheimer's disease patient is directly related to the severity of the

patient's illness.
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State and federal governments shoulder some of the costs of caring for persons with Alzheimer's

disease, largely through Medicaid and Medicare.(Souêtre et al., 1999)

Trends in Alzheimer disease

Anti-AD drugs only provide short improvement in symptoms but do not affect the

underlying pathogenic mechanisms or progression of the disease. this failure may be the cause of

the progression of AD in the patient populations enrolled in clinical studies was too advanced for

drugs to demonstrate cognitive and functional improvements. In response to this situation,

Global initiatives are focusing on 2025 to provide new treatment options.

The most important risk factor for Ad is age, Other risk factors for AD include sex (female),

history of head trauma, family history of Down syndrome or dementia, and cerebrovascular risk

factors. The process that causes AD is still unknown, There is the selective vulnerability of the

limbic system and heteromodal association areas in AD pathology. The clinical presentation of

AD is heterogeneous and insidious, and the psychological and financial effects of AD on

caregivers and family members are significant.(Sugino et al., 2015)

The Growing Burden of Alzheimer's Disease

Most of the dementias found in people older than 65 years are attributable to AD.the

population of AD patient expected to reach near 14.5 million over the next 40 years, recently

there is no cure for AD but a 2-year delay in AD onset would reduce the expected prevalence by

1.94 million within 50 years.(The Growing Burden of Alzheimer’s Disease - PubMed, n.d.)

Conclusion

So in my side Alzheimer disease till now doesn’t have any cure just the medication

helps to reduce the symptoms and increase life expectancy and the rate of this disease is

increasing in mostly older patients and the fee for taking care of these kinds of patients are nearly
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expensive so by improving lifestyle and reducing risk factors during years we can reduce these

expecting numbers and protect patients from AD.

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References

Alzheimer’s Dementia: Morbidity and Mortality - PubMed. (n.d.). Retrieved June 10, 2020, from

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11558402/

Alzheimer’s disease - Symptoms and causes - Mayo Clinic. (n.d.). Retrieved June 10, 2020, from

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/alzheimers-disease/symptoms-causes/syc-

20350447

Jiang, T., Yu, J.-T., Tian, Y., & Tan, L. (n.d.). Epidemiology and Etiology of Alzheimer’s

disease: From Genetic to Non- Genetic Factors.

Souêtre, E., Thwaites, R. M. A., & Yeardley, H. L. (1999). Economic impact of Alzheimer’s

disease in the United Kingdom: Cost of care and disease severity for non-institutionalised

patients with Alzheimer’s disease. British Journal of Psychiatry, 174(JAN.), 51–55.

https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.174.1.51

Sugino, H., Watanabe, A., Amada, N., Yamamoto, M., Ohgi, Y., Kostic, D., & Sanchez, R.

(2015). Global Trends in Alzheimer Disease Clinical Development: Increasing the

Probability of Success. Clinical Therapeutics, 37(8), 1632–1642.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clinthera.2015.07.006

The economic impact of Alzheimer’s disease. - PsycNET. (n.d.). Retrieved June 10, 2020, from

https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1994-07084-001

The Growing Burden of Alzheimer’s Disease - PubMed. (n.d.). Retrieved June 10, 2020, from

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22214391/
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