Dementia costs top those for heart disease or cancer, study finds

Apr. 3, 2013 ? The monetary cost of dementia in the United States ranges from $157 billion to $215 billion annually, making the disease more costly to the nation than either heart disease or cancer, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

The greatest economic cost of dementia is associated with providing institutional and home-based long-term care rather than medical services, according to the findings published in the April 4 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine. The study, funded by the National Institute on Aging, is the most-detailed examination done in recent decades on the costs of dementia.

The prevalence of dementia increases strongly with age and the analysis suggests that the costs of dementia could more than double by 2040 if the age-specific prevalence rate of the disease remains constant as the nation's population continues to grow older.

"The economic burden of caring for people in the United States with dementia is large and growing larger," said Michael Hurd, the study's lead author and a senior economist at RAND, a nonprofit research organization. "Our findings underscore the urgency of recent federal efforts to develop a coordinated plan to address the growing impact of dementia on American society."

The new cost estimates are lower than ones reported previously by the Alzheimer's Association. Researchers say the new study provides a clearer picture of the economic burden caused by the disease because it eliminates costs related to other illnesses suffered by dementia patients, accounts for variations in the severity of dementia and uses a better estimate of the incidence of the illness.

Dementia is a chronic disease of aging characterized by progressive cognitive decline that interferes with independent functioning. The illness includes Alzheimer's disease and other disorders.

In 2011, President Obama signed the National Alzheimer's Project Act, which calls for increased efforts to find new treatments and to provide improved care for those with dementia. The law also requires that the financial costs of dementia be tracked.

The new study is based on findings from the Health and Retirement Study, an ongoing survey of individuals in the United States age 51 and older that began in 1992, and is supported by the National Institute on Aging and the Social Security Administration. A subset of that study group received a detailed in-home clinical assessment for dementia as part of the Aging, Demographics and Memory Study, a nationally representative examination of dementia in the United States.

The survey included an assessment of whether people could perform daily activities such as dressing themselves and preparing their own meals. Participants also were asked about their out-of-pocket health care expenses for services such as nursing home stays, home health care and other medical services. Other questions asked whether they received help from others for their daily living activities. Medicare spending information was linked to medical claims for most participants.

The study estimates that 14.7 percent of Americans aged 71 or older suffered from dementia in 2010, a number somewhat lower than what has been found in other, smaller studies.

The total economic cost of dementia in 2010 was estimated to be $109 billion for care purchased, and $159 billion to $215 billion when the monetary value of informal care is included. The range of estimates reflects two different methods researchers used to place a value on unpaid care. The per-person cost of dementia was $56,290 or $41,689. Medicare paid about $11 billion of dementia-related costs.

Researchers say the main component of the dementia costs is for institutional and home-based long-term care rather than medical services. The cost of nursing home care, and formal and informal home care comprise 75 percent to 84 percent of dementia costs.

"People with dementia do not get much more additional health care services than other people," Hurd said. "The real drivers of the cost are for non-medical care."

The cost of dementia care purchases ($109 billion) was similar to the estimated of the direct health care costs for heart disease ($102 billion) and significantly higher than the direct health costs for cancer ($77 billion). However, the costs for cancer and health disease do not include the cost of informal care, which is likely to be larger for dementia.

"There are no signs that the costs of dementia will decrease given that the nation will have a larger number of 85-year-olds in the future than we do today," Hurd said. "Unless there is some sort of medical breakthrough, these costs will continue to rise."

Other authors of the study are Francisco Martorell, Adeline Delavande and Kathleen J. Mullen of RAND and Kenneth M. Langa of the University of Michigan.

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

---

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by RAND Corporation.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal Reference:

1. M.D. Hurd, P. Martorell, A. Delavande, K.J. Mullen, and K.M. Langa. Monetary Costs of Dementia in the United States. New England Journal of Medicine, 2013; DOI: 10.1056/NEJMsa1204629

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/uy4JYNktxc4/130403200202.htm

toys r us kohls target target walmart best buy sears

Kate Gosselin, Bullyville Under Scrutiny For Exposing Haters' Identities Online

Source:

comedy central philadelphia eagles obamacare Todd Akin Register To Vote Fox News Live Obama 2016

Reuters: Google to Launch Second-Gen Nexus 7 in July

Reuters is suggesting that Google will launch a new version of its Nexus 7 tablet in July—which will bring with it a decent spec bump, if the rumors are to be believed. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/HVG1gUmbfCo/reuters-google-to-launch-second+gen-nexus-7-in-july

hossa the cell dickclark gavin degraw gavin degraw alec time 100

How a Second Korean War Would Harm the U.S. Economy

Every nation that takes on the U.S. military loses. So the armchair generals gaming out a war on the Korean peninsula typically assume that if fighting erupted, North Korea could bloody the South but would quickly be crushed as American forces and their South Korean allies retaliated with overwhelming force.

[PHOTOS: North Korea Conducts Third Nuclear Test]

Real generals know, of course, that wars are messy, unpredictable, and never the cakewalk that desk jockeys tend to predict. In fact, if the recent saber-rattling between North and South Korea escalated into outright war, it could be far bloodier, and exact more damage on the global economy, than most people imagine.

Back in 1953, when the armistice halting the war went into effect, Korea was considered a geographically strategic landmass, but its role in the global economy was insignificant. That has changed. South Korea is now a prosperous democracy with the world's 15th largest economy. It's the home of prominent global corporations such as Samsung, Hyundai and LG. As the sixth largest trading partner of the United States, South Korea plays a key role in the global supply chain for many important products.

North Korea remains a backward, feudal dictatorship, yet it has the ability to lob chemical, biological and nuclear weapons into South Korea or Japan, and enough conventional firepower to roil all of Asia. And military experts doubt U.S. and South Korean forces could silence the North Korea's guns quickly.

"It could easily take months," says Bruce Bennett of the Rand Corporation, which conducts detailed research for the Pentagon. "Even people in the U.S. military don't like to think about the damage that a war could do, including the economy."

There's little doubt U.S. and South Korean forces would ultimately prevail in a war. But for days or weeks, North Korea could bombard Seoul, South Korea's capital, with artillery and missiles. Bennett estimates that could damage or destroy 10 to 15 percent of South Korea's GDP, while also terrorizing citizens and causing panicky refugee flows.

[READ: North Korean War Rhetoric Reaches Breaking Point]

The use of nukes or other weapons of mass destruction is much harder to quantify, but it would obviously be disastrous. The use of chemical or biological weapons would produce a health emergency that could spread beyond the Korean peninsula if, for instance, Americans unknowingly infected with smallpox fled Korea and returned home. If North Korea, which has perhaps 5 to 10 rudimentary nukes, fired one or more of them, disbelief would promptly yield to mayhem.

"The impact on markets and global confidence would be shattering," says Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at forecasting firm IHS Global Insight.

It's facile to assume America would respond to a North Korean nuclear attack by incinerating Pyongyang.

"No U.S. president would kill 10 million innocents in North Korea," Bennett asserts. Besides, North Korea could have its nukes hidden in mountain caves or subterranean bunkers. And experience in Iraq and elsewhere has made clear that enemy leaders can easily hide from the Pentagon's mind-bending surveillance gear, at least for a while. So it's possible that a kind of nuclear cat-and-mouse game could ensue as allied forces gradually overwhelmed the large but brittle North Korean military and destroyed its launch capability.

Once the fighting was over, both South Korea and China would face a massive flow of North Korean refugees. If the two Koreas united, it would be enormously costly for the south, and probably more chaotic than the reunification of East and West Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall, because of the primitive conditions in the north.

If there's any good news--for westerners, that is--it's that the worst fallout from a war would probably remain contained to the Korean peninsula. The one exception might be a nuclear attack on Japan, a long-standing North Korean foe. For all its bluster, North Korea doesn't yet have the capability to strike the United States.

[ALSO: Avoiding 'Korean War II']

So in the worst-case scenario, the economic damage would ripple outward from Korea and perhaps Japan. While the shock and uncertainty caused by a war would clearly rattle the global economy, the region doesn't control the supply of a vital commodity such as oil, and a war wouldn't threaten vital shipping lanes such as the Strait of Malacca that links the Indian and Pacific oceans, or the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Persian Gulf.

"I don't think it would trigger a recession at the global level, as it would if oil hit $200 a barrel," Behravesh says.

Some South Korean industries and companies could end up devastated. Many U.S. firms would have to find other suppliers, similar to what happened after the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami struck Japan in 2011. But the economy would gradually adjust to those disruptions.

South Korea itself would probably reap huge amounts of rebuilding aid. Plus, South Korea has already shown itself to be a feisty and ambitious economic power, and unification with North Korea might eventually give it standing to challenge China's economic might. That, however, is many turns in the future, beyond a nightmarish sequence of events that most reasonable people hope never to witness.

Rick Newman's latest book is Rebounders: How Winners Pivot From Setback To Success. Follow him on Twitter: @rickjnewman.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/second-korean-war-harm-u-economy-172410028.html

ronnie montrose melissa gilbert dancing with the stars dandelion wine cough matt groening brandon phillips summerfest

Pricking Your Way to Health: The Benefits of Acupuncture | Mexico ...

More and more people are now open to the Eastern medicine and therapy, including the use of Asian styles of massage. Several types of massage originated from the east such as the shiatsu, reflexology, and the Thai massage. Aside from herbal medications originating from different parts of Asia, another exotic treatment that has achieved worldwide recognition is called acupuncture. It is one of the most common medical procedures practiced in China, Japan, Korea and other parts of the world.

Acupuncture involves the activation or stimulation of certain anatomical points in the body by use of various techniques. Medical traditions coming from Korea, China, Japan, and other Asian countries are the basis for the American practice of acupuncture. This specific health procedure includes the penetration of thin, solid metal needles that are handled manually or by the use of electrical stimulation. These needles are not that painful when inserted through the skin, but it has a different feeling with minimal pain involved. There are different experiences when this kind of medication is exercised. After being treated, some people feel energized, while others feel much more relaxed. It is important to have this medical procedure done by a professional acupuncture practitioner, since an improper placement of the needle, unnecessary movement of the patient, or a needle defect can cause pain and soreness during the course of the treatment.

Acupuncture can be used as an alternative treatment for health conditions such as postoperative and chemotherapy nausea and vomiting and for postoperative dental pain. This procedure is also useful in the healing of other health concerns like headaches, menstrual cramps, addiction, stroke rehabilitation, lower back pain, tennis elbow, myofascial pain, fatigue, osteoarthritis, carpal tunnel syndrome, asthma, and fibromyalgia.

This type of alternative treatment can ease the pain of the mentioned ailments above, as well as fibromyalgia. Since this illness may not be known by most people, fibromyalgia refers to a widespread of pain in muscles, tendons, and ligaments. This ailment is also characterized by fatigue and numerous tender points, or certain areas in a person?s body where a slight pressure can cause pain.

Acupuncture is also used to treat several conditions just like fibromyalgia, and this can also be a form of relaxation, as stated earlier. Considering fatigue is caused by excessive exhaustion, weariness, tiredness or lethargy, the practice of this healing treatment can make the body feel relaxed and at the same time cures ailments by using these thin metal needles.

The practice of acupuncture cannot be explained fully by western health research. According to Traditional Chinese Medicine theory, acupuncture treatment is used to achieve balance between two inseparable forces, the yin and the yang, which exist in the human body. Chinese practitioners use certain points along the so-called body meridians as targets for inserting the needles. These points correspond to a specific internal organ. The stimulation of the point brings healing to the ailing internal organ and allows the flow of internal energy or ?chi? to go unhindered, resulting in perfect balance and health inside the human body. While this healing method has been used for thousands of years, it is still a subject of intense debate especially in the Western medical community.

Source: http://www.nmfbihop.com/pricking-your-way-to-health-the-benefits-of-acupuncture

cm punk cm punk lint buenos aires train crash argentina train crash nancy pelosi nancy pelosi

Arkansas House votes to override veto of voter ID bill

LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (Reuters) - The Republican-controlled Arkansas House of Representatives voted on Monday to override a veto by the state's Democratic governor of a bill that would require voters to show photo identification.

Representatives voted 52-45 to override Governor Mike Beebe's veto, joining the state Senate, which had voted on March 27 to override the veto.

In Arkansas, lawmakers can override a veto by a simple majority in each chamber. This year, state lawmakers have overridden vetoes of two bills that restrict abortion.

Arkansas will join nearly three dozen U.S. states that have voter ID measures, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Legal challenges to voter ID laws are pending in several U.S. states.

Supporters of the proposal say it would prevent voter fraud. State representatives had voted 51-44 to approve the voter identification measure that was sent to Beebe.

In his veto letter on March 25, Beebe had said he "believes that the bill will unnecessarily cost taxpayers money, grow bureaucracy and risk disenfranchisement of voters."

The state Bureau of Legislative Research has said the law potentially could cost $300,000 for hardware, supplies, installation and training.

The law requires county clerks to make photo ID cards at no cost for registered voters who do not have other valid forms of identification. Voters who lack identification may cast provisional ballots, which would be counted if they return with photo identification.

Arkansas law has permitted poll workers to ask voters for identifying documents, but voters have not been required to show them.

The bill takes effect next January 1, but only if the legislature has appropriated money to issue voter ID cards.

(Reporting by Suzi Parker; Writing by David Bailey; Editing by Cynthia Johnston)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/arkansas-house-votes-override-veto-voter-id-bill-194305239.html

jason aldean Brigitte Nielsen Cricinfo Geno Smith ny giants brandon marshall ryder cup

Central African Republic opposition says to boycott new government

By Ange Aboa

BANGUI (Reuters) - Central African Republic's opposition said on Monday it would not participate in a caretaker government nominated by the country's self-proclaimed president, claiming it has been stacked with rebel sympathizers.

The move will complicate a planned transition back to civilian rule in the resource-rich former French colony after fighters from the Seleka rebel coalition stormed the capital on March 24 and ousted President Francois Bozize.

"We are suspending our participation in this new government because we can not accept the fact that 16 posts have been handed over to Seleka allies disguised as civil society activists," said Edouard Koyambounou, a spokesman for the country's nine main opposition parties.

Central African Republic's new leader, Michel Djotodia, named a cabinet of ministers on Sunday night that included eight opposition slots, 16 for civil society members, and most of the remaining 10 chosen from among Seleka's ranks.

Djotodia claimed the role of Defense Minister.

Koyambounou said the opposition's decision to suspend its participation in the government did not affect Prime Minister Nicolas Tiangaye, who was nominated to his role under a January peace deal between Bozize and Seleka.

That deal ultimately unraveled when rebels accused Bozize of failing to uphold his end, triggering the overthrow.

Regional and Western leaders have condemned the rebel takeover, in which at least 13 South African soldiers bolstering Bozize's ranks were killed. The coup triggered days of looting in the dilapidated riverside capital Bangui.

Neighboring Cameroon's government on Monday said 3,000 Central African refugees had streamed across its borders since last week, and added it had bolstered its troop presence along thickly forested frontier.

Chad will host a regional summit on the situation in Central African Republic on April 3. South African President Jacob Zuma is expected to attend. Koyambounou said the opposition was not planning to attend the N'Djamena summit.

Central Africa's regional central bank said it would reopen its branch in Bangui on Tuesday, and urged commercial lenders to do the same, offering a financial lifeline to cash-starved businesses a week after a coup.

(Writing by Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Rosalind Russell)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/central-african-republic-opposition-says-boycott-government-201840986.html

sons of anarchy adriana lima victoria secret fashion show SEC Championship Rick Majerus Cotto vs Trout Robin Givens