Baby boom, dementia explosion

By: Carol Sanders 

An estimated 22,500 Manitobans have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease or another type of dementia and that number is growing at an alarming rate, owing to the post-Second World War baby boom.

By 2038, the number is expected to be more than 40,000. And the growing number will be accompanied by soaring costs, says community health sciences professor Banibrata Roy at the University of Manitoba’s Max Rady College of Medicine.

The researcher warns of the "dreadful impact both in terms of increased number of people suffering from dementia and the escalating health-care costs that the Province of Manitoba has to bear." 

Since 2015, the total annual economic burden of dementia, which includes direct health-care costs and indirect costs, has added up to $1 billion annually, Roy calculates. By 2038, the cost rises to $28 billion annually after inflation and other costs are factored in.

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