Earlier diagnosis is also associated with greater per-person savings, the report noted. “Under the current status quo, an individual with Alzheimer’s has total projected health and long-term care costs of $424,000 (present value of future costs) from the year before MCI until death. Under the partial early diagnosis scenario, the average per-person cost for an individual with Alzheimer’s is projected to be $360,000, saving $64,000 per individual.”
The economic modeling study employed The Health Economics Medical Innovation Simulation (THEMIS), which uses data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), a nationally representative sample of adults aged 50 and older.
The simulated population included everyone alive in the United States in 2018 and assumed cognitive assessment beginning at age 50. The model did not assume that biomarkers would be used in the diagnostic process.