Evans D A
Harvard Medical School.
Milbank Q. 1990;68(2):267-89.
Although awareness of Alzheimer's disease has increased strikingly among professional and lay audiences, precise means do not exist to calculate how many Americans the disease affects. Projecting data from a cohort of 32,000 individuals in a defined community in the United States, however, suggests that there were 2.88 million persons aged 65 or older with probable Alzheimer's disease in 1980. Using U.S. Census Bureau middle series projections yields an estimated total of 10.3 million persons with the disease for the year 2050. Limitations on these estimates notwithstanding, the projections indicate that more studies are needed to identify the etiology of Alzheimer's disease, its incidence, and the future costs of relevant institutional and community care.
尽管阿尔茨海默病在专业人士和普通大众中的认知度显著提高，但目前尚无精确方法来计算受该疾病影响的美国人数。不过，根据美国一个特定社区32000人的队列数据进行推算表明，1980年有288万65岁及以上的人可能患有阿尔茨海默病。利用美国人口普查局的中期预测系列得出，到2050年估计患该疾病的总人数为1030万。尽管这些估计存在局限性，但这些预测表明，需要开展更多研究来确定阿尔茨海默病的病因、发病率以及相关机构和社区护理的未来成本。
