Dementia Care Costs Lowest for Patients Living in Home Care Settings, Study Finds

McKnight’s Home Care / By Adam Healy
 
When it comes to long-term care for patients with dementia, staying home may be the least expensive option, according to a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association.
 
Comparing data from more than 4,500 respondents aged 70 years and older, the researchers found that the median monthly out-of-pocket cost of long-term dementia care was only about $260 for those living at home and in their communities. Meanwhile, nursing home residents incurred about $1,465 in out-of-pocket care costs each month, and people living in other kinds of residential facilities — group homes, assisted living facilities or retirement communities — generally spent about $2,925 per month, according to the study.
 
Community-dwelling people with dementia also receive a lot of support from unpaid caregivers, the study found. People living in their community generally received the most unpaid help from caregivers compared to those living in nursing homes or other residential care facilities. About a quarter of individuals living at home or in their community received at least 200 hours of help from unpaid caregivers each month.
 
The researchers called for enhanced support for services that keep people out of residential care facilities, where the long-term costs of dementia care are highest. They also called for expansions of services such as the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly, which has been proven effective in keeping many nursing home-eligible people at home and in their communities. 
 
“Given the costs associated with residential care facilities like nursing homes and assisted living centers, increasing funding for home- and community-based care is a promising way to reduce the financial burden that long-term care places on older adults, particularly those with dementia,” study authors Jalayne Arias and Jing Li said in a statement.
 
Still, regardless of their setting of care, people with dementia tend to experience far higher long-term care costs compared to individuals without dementia, given “intensive needs for functional help and the length of the disease course.”
 
“Because dementia is such an expensive illness, it really is in a category of its own when we start to think about funding for long-term care,” said senior author Jalayne Arias, associate professor in the GSU School of Public Health. “If you compare people with dementia to their age-matched counterparts, they experience costs that are untenable to manage.”