Health care costs of older persons with cognitive impairments

The 1981-1982 National Long-Term Care Channeling Demonstration Project data revealed that the mean annual cost per capita for home and institutional care for cognitively impaired persons was +18,500. The equivalent figure for cognitively intact persons was +16,650. Cognitively impaired persons used nursing homes at twice the rate of cognitively intact persons. Use differences for other health services were slight. A pre- and post-nursing home admission analysis indicated that for the cognitively impaired the annual cost of community care was +11,700, whereas the cost of nursing home care was +22,300.