People affected by Alzheimer's

An estimated 5.4 million Americans of all ages have Alzheimer’s disease in the year 2012. This figure includes 5.2 million people age 65 and older and the 200,000 individuals under age 65 who have younger-onset Alzheimer’s. So as you can see the disease affects a great number of people mostly over the age of 65. 

Of those 5.4 million people nearly two-thirds (3.4 million) of them are women, showing that the disease is more prevalent in women compared to men. According to www.alz.org this difference in numbers of men and women is explain by the fact that women on average live longer than men, thus concluding that women are not more likely than men to get the disease.

There are also some racial differences in the likelihood between whites, African Americans, and Hispanics as African Americans are about twice as likely to have Alzheimer’s than whites. Hispanic are about one and half times as likely to have Alzheimer’s than whites. These stats definitely show some clear racial disparities in the diagnoses of Alzheimer’s. These number can try to be explained by possible other health condition that are more prevalent in the African American and Hispanic communities that increase ones risk for Alzheimer’s such as high blood pressure and diabetes. Lower levels of socioeconomic status in these communities can also lead to increase risk.

The population that are directly diagnosed with this disease are obviously Americans that are over the age of 65 and are the primary audience but that does not mean they are the only ones affect by this devastating disease. We cannot forget that it also affects the families and caregivers of the people diagnosed with the disease. If the numbers continue to rise it will have a great impact and affect a lot of people not even directly tied to the disease, as it will affect health care systems and funding.

So what the stats show is that the disease is most prevalent in Americans over the age of 65 with a huge number of 5.2 million of the 5.4 million Americans that have Alzheimer’s. Of these 5.4 million almost two thirds are women, which does not necessarily suggest that women are more likely to get the disease. Also there are some disparities in race between white, African Americans, and Hispanics and having Alzheimer’s. And don’t forget about the families, health care systems, and health care funding that the increasing numbers of this disease also affects!

All stats are from http://www.alz.org/downloads/facts_figures_2012.pdf