18% of All Boomers Expected to Develop Alzheimer's

March 18, 2008— -- About 14 million, or roughly 18 percent, of the USA's 79 million baby boomers can expect to develop Alzheimer's or some other form of dementia in their lifetime, a newly released report shows.

Americans are developing Alzheimer's at an accelerating rate, says Stephen McConnell, vice president of public policy for the Alzheimer's Association.

Medical advances have allowed people to beat cancer and heart disease. But with longer life comes the added risk of Alzheimer's, a progressive brain disease that causes severe memory loss and confusion.

The oldest baby boomers are turning 62 this year and are by definition entering the risk zone. Age is the single biggest risk factor for the disease: The likelihood of developing Alzheimer's doubles every five years after age 65.

"What we're faced with here is the boomer population coming of age," says Gary Small, director of the UCLA Center on Aging. "There are going to be a lot more people at risk."

The report, "2008 Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures," states that one out of eight boomers will be diagnosed with Alzheimer's, the most common type of dementia, at some point. If no cure for Alzheimer's is found, the nation will be faced with a half-million new cases of Alzheimer's in 2010 and nearly a million a year by the middle of the century.

The report doesn't minimize the burden on the population today, noting that 5.2 million people now have the disease, which can take more than 10 years to destroy the mind. That figure includes a small group of people struggling with the disease in the prime of life. The report says as many as 500,000 Americans are diagnosed before the age of 65.

According to the Alzheimer's Association, 70% of people with Alzheimer's and other dementias live at home, where friends and family members pitch in to help them, often at great cost. The report notes: