Projected Costs of Informal Caregiving for Cardiovascular Disease: 2015 to 2035: A Policy Statement From the American Heart Association

Abstract

INTRODUCTION:In a recent report, the American Heart Association estimated that medical costs and productivity losses of cardiovascular disease (CVD) are expected to grow from $555 billion in 2015 to $1.1 trillion in 2035. Although the burden is significant, the estimate does not include the costs of family, informal, or unpaid caregiving provided to patients with CVD. In this analysis, we estimated projections of costs of informal caregiving attributable to CVD for 2015 to 2035. METHODS:We used data from the 2014 Health and Retirement Survey to estimate hours of informal caregiving for individuals with CVD by age/sex/race using a zero-inflated binomial model and controlling for sociodemographic factors and health conditions. Costs of informal caregiving were estimated separately for hypertension, coronary heart disease, heart failure, stroke, and other heart disease. We analyzed data from a nationally representative sample of 16 731 noninstitutionalized adults ≥54 years of age. The value of caregiving hours was monetized by the use of home health aide workers' wages. The per-person costs were multiplied by census population counts to estimate nation-level costs and to be consistent with other American Heart Association analyses of burden of CVD, and the costs were projected from 2015 through 2035, assuming that within each age/sex/racial group, CVD prevalence and caregiving hours remain constant. RESULTS:The costs of informal caregiving for patients with CVD were estimated to be $61 billion in 2015 and are projected to increase to $128 billion in 2035. Costs of informal caregiving of patients with stroke constitute more than half of the total costs of CVD informal caregiving ($31 billion in 2015 and $66 billion in 2035). By age, costs are the highest among those 65 to 79 years of age in 2015 but are expected to be surpassed by costs among those ≥80 years of age by 2035. Costs of informal caregiving for patients with CVD represent an additional 11% of medical and productivity costs attributable to CVD. CONCLUSIONS:The burden of informal caregiving for patients with CVD is significant; accounting for these costs increases total CVD costs to $616 billion in 2015 and $1.2 trillion in 2035. These estimates have important research and policy implications, and they may be used to guide policy development to reduce the burden of CVD on patients and their caregivers.

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“…Data on the national economic burden of CVD in the other mega-countries were collected from a included series of studies and reports [51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70]. Beginning with countries of a low and middle HDI, data of projected economic losses due to CVD in India between 2012 and 2030 were identified in a study Evidence of CVD economic impact for mega-countries with a very high HDI were identified in seven sources.…”

The Integrated Landscape of Biological Candidate Causal Genes in Coronary Artery Disease

“…Parallel to the high prevalence and vast number of deaths, CAD also places a crushing economic burden. According to the recent American Heart Association report, the medical costs and productivity losses of CVD are expected to grow from $555 billion in 2015 to $1.1 trillion in 2035 (Dunbar et al, 2018;Benjamin et al, 2019). Although CAD has become a major concern in global public health, there still a long way to fully understand the etiology of CAD before getting it under control.…”

Validation of Bakas Caregiving Outcome Scale for brazilian portuguese

“…This person presents specific and different care needs, such as physical help (moving to the bathroom, to the bed); communication (verbal and nonverbal cues to other family members when the patient has aphasia); support for eating, taking care of their personal hygiene and emotional support (dealing with the destructive behavior caused by the consequences of the disease) (4) . The many tasks that are attributed to the family caregiver, lack of support, unpreparedness to care, the level of dependence of the patient, the chronicity of the disabling situation, the complexity of the care activities, the worsening of health status and the uncertainty of future causes burden, and this may lead to social isolation, reduction or end of leisure activities, impairment of professional activity, loss of job and lack of time for self-care (5)(6)(7)(8) .…”