The Role of Religious Coping in Alzheimer’s Disease Caregiving

Family members often assume the role of primary caregivers. Provision of care to those with AD is influenced by the progressive nature of the disorder, the increase in the average life span of adults, and the cost of health and nursing home care for older adults. More than 70 percent of people with AD live at home (Dippel, 1996). Among these individuals, the majority of those with AD remain at home until the last and most severe stages of the disease. The average lifetime cost of caring for someone with AD and related disorder is close to $200,000 (Ernst & Hay, 2003). Neither Medicare nor private health insurance covers the long-term care most people with AD need. Nursing home care is very expensive, ranging from $40,000 to $70,000 a year (Dippel, 1996). century, that number is expected to increase to 14.3 million (Diagnostic Center for Alzheimer’s Disease, 2006). With an estimated cost of exceeding $100 billion per year, AD is the third most costly disease in the U.S., after heart disease and cancer (Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation, 2005). The prevalence, cost and suffering that result from AD will increase dramatically over the next forty years unless the cause and a cure are found.