The impact of dementia on drug costs in older people: results from the SNAC study

Background: We aimed to investigate the impact of dementia on drug costs in older people, after adjustment for socio-demographic factors, residential setting and co-morbidities. Methods: We included 4 129 individuals aged >= 60 years from The Swedish National Study on Aging and Care (SNAC) in Kungsholmen and Nordanstig 2001-2004. A generalized linear model (GLM) was used to investigate how much dementia was associated with drug costs. Results: Overall drug costs for persons with and without dementia were 6147 SEK (816 USD) and 3810 SEK (506 USD), respectively. The highest drug cost was observed for nervous system drugs among persons with dementia. The adjusted GLM showed that dementia was not associated with higher overall drug costs (beta = 1.119; ns). Comorbidities and residential setting were the most important factors for overall drug costs. Conclusion: We found that the observed higher overall drug costs for persons with dementia were due to comorbidities and residential setting.