The costs of dementia from the societal perspective: is care provided in the community really cheaper than nursing home care?

Objective To compare the costs of care for community-dwelling dementia patients with the costs of care for dementia patients living in nursing homes from the societal perspective. Design Cross-sectional bottom-up cost of illness study nested within the multicenter German AgeCoDe-cohort. Setting Community and nursing homes. Participants One hundred twenty-eight community-dwelling dementia patients and 48 dementia patients living in nursing homes. Intervention None. Measurements Utilization and costs of medical care and long term care, including formal and informal social and nursing care based on proxy interviews. Informal care was valued using the replacement cost method. Results Unadjusted mean annual total costs including informal care were €29,930 ($43,997) for community-dwelling patients and €33,482 ($49,218) for patients living in nursing homes. However, multiple regression analysis controlling for age, sex, deficits in basic and instrumental activities of daily living and comorbidity showed that living in the community significantly increased total costs by €11,344 ($16,676; P P Conclusion From the societal perspective care for dementia patients living in the community tends to cost more than care in nursing homes when functional impairment is controlled for.