Best Use of Thought Leadership
Commissioned by Alzheimer’s Society, CF conducted an innovative analysis revealing the total cost of dementia in the UK at £42 billion in 2024, projected to rise to £90 billion by 2040, with over 63% of these costs borne by patients and their families. The study highlighted the urgent need for early diagnosis, increased support for unpaid carers, robust social care, and improved data capture to inform Labour dementia policy, healthcare strategy, and resource allocation.
We were commissioned by Alzheimer’s Society to conduct an innovative analysis of the economic impact of dementia, using a diverse set of datasets to bring new insight into the costs of people with dementia now and in the future to influence government dementia policy going forward. This was not just a theoretical endeavour but a project that highlighted the hidden costs and broader impact of a condition affecting millions. Unlike previous research approaches, our delivery team created a granular, data-driven narrative revealing dementia’s full economic and human impacts.
The cornerstone of our methodology was detailed severity stratification using Mini-Mental State Examination scores, developing six cohorts: mild, moderate, severe, unclassified, pre-diagnosis, and a control group. This sophisticated data integration strategy connected primary and secondary care, mental health services, community care, and prescription records within the DiscoverNOW secure data environment. We analysed healthcare records of 26,097 dementia patients, tracking healthcare activity and costs across various settings between 2015 and 2022.
Our findings revealed that dementia cost the UK £42 billion in 2024, projected to grow to £90 billion by 2040, with over 63% borne by patients and families. We uncovered average lifetime per-person costs varying significantly by severity: £28,700 for mild, rising exponentially to £80,500 for severe dementia. This progression is not linear but exponential, increasing 1.5 times from mild to moderate and nearly doubling from moderate to severe.
The most profound impact is from unpaid care, constituting 50% of total costs in 2024 at £21 billion. Approximately one-third of unpaid carers dedicate over 100 hours weekly to caregiving, with 70% expressing the need for more support. The impact on families is significant, with 16% having to leave their jobs while also managing their own health conditions. Social care emerges as the second-largest expense category at £17 billion, primarily driven by residential care costs. Healthcare costs constitute £7 billion, with a third allocated to acute care.
The research highlighted critical challenges in current management, as diagnostic testing and dementia-specific treatments account for just 1.4% of healthcare expenditure. Dementia-specific treatments, including AChE inhibitors and Memantine, constitute only 3.0% of prescribing costs and 0.05% of total expenses. This underscores the need for greater investment in diagnostic tools and early interventions to enhance patient outcomes and reduce long-term healthcare costs.
Our findings have influenced both national and local discussions and played a central role in a Westminster Hall debate on inequalities in dementia services, leading to a commitment to raising diagnosis rate targets under the new Government. The report supported Alzheimer’s Society’s work with several ICBs on local dementia strategies, with specific feedback on its value in tender documents for post-diagnostic support provision. This work illuminated critical gaps in dementia care infrastructure, revealing how fractional diagnostic spending hinders early intervention and highlighting the urgent need for improved therapeutic access and substantial support for overlooked unpaid carers. Enhanced social care provision could alleviate enormous financial pressure on patients and families, while better data capture systems would transform evidence-based strategy development addressing the growing dementia challenge.
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