The clinical and economic burden among caregivers of patients with Alzheimer's disease in Canada.

OBJECTIVE

To estimate the clinical and direct medical economic burden among Alzheimer disease (AD) caregivers using real-world, longitudinal patient-level data in Canada.

METHODS/DESIGN: This retrospective observational study assessed the clinical and direct medical economic burden among individuals who cohabitate with AD patients ("AD caregiver cohort") compared with older adults who were cohabiting with another adult without dementia ("comparison cohort") using real-world data from the Southwestern Ontario database, a representative Canadian electronic health record (EHR) longitudinal EHR.

RESULTS

The AD caregiver cohort (n = 2749; mild AD: n = 2254, moderate AD: n = 302, and severe AD, n = 193) had a similar or higher level of clinical and economic burden than the comparison cohort (n = 12 152). The overall AD cohort and caregivers of patients with mild AD had a similar clinical burden to the comparison cohort. Those caregiving for more severely affected AD patients had an increased risk of comorbidities and required more medication, physician attention, and hospital encounters compared with caregivers of less severe AD patients and the comparison cohort. Mean annual costs were higher among the AD caregiver cohort than the comparison cohort, and those caregiving for moderate and severe AD patients incurred the highest costs. Overall mortality was higher in the AD caregiver cohort compared with the comparison cohort.

CONCLUSIONS

Caregivers of patients with mild AD had a similar clinical and direct economic burden to older adults who were not dementia caregivers, whereas the burden among caregivers of moderate and severe AD patients was much greater.