Healthy Lifestyles in Aging Overview

Healthy Lifestyles in Aging, Inc., is designed provide consultation service for Long Term Health Care Providers to enhance

• memory,
• focus and
• cognitive vitality through activity plans that provide engagement in healthy lifestyles that support healthy cognitive function.

Several studies suggest that lifestyle factors such as:

• physical activity,
• social engagement,
• mental stimulation, and
• adequate levels of B vitamins & antioxidants play an important roll in limiting memory loss. 1, 2, 3

Some review articles suggest that the most effective means to decrease memory loss associated with dementia or Alzheimer's disease is to combine these successful lifestyle factors in an activity plan that targets individual deficit areas. 4, 5

The importance of creating preventative measures for cognitive decline related to Alzheimer’s disease or dementia is underscored in The State of Aging and Health in America 2007:

“Although current science linking cognitive decline and dementia is not clear, the work on maintaining cognitive function may hold future possibilities for preventing dementia such as Alzheimer’s disease (p.6).”  6

Critical Need

Average Life Expectany

Along with nations in Europe and Japan, the United States is becoming a nation with an aging population with issues that grow in urgency, including memory loss related to Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. 10 According to National Vital Statistics, average life expectancy in America will be

• 81.4 years in 2010
• 82.2 years in 2015  7

Prevalence Rate of Dementia

By 2030, the number of individuals over the age of 65 will increase to 71 million. For individuals over the age of 80, the number will increase to 19.5 million. 11 The Canadian Study of Health and Aging CSHA (2000) provide estimates of the prevalence rate of memory loss related to Alzheimer’s disease and dementia for individuals over the age of 65

• to approximately double every five years. 12
• About half the population over the age of 85 will be effected with issues related to dementia.

In America, the prevalence rate for dementia and Alzheimer’s disease

• has increased over 50 percent since 1980 and 
• will increase dramatically as our population ages in the next 30 years. 8,13 
• Today, half the population over the age of 85 experience memory loss. 14

Health Care Costs

The ramifications of the growing prevalence rate of individuals with memory loss directly impacts long term health care and individual issues with healthy aging. 51

• The average cost for a single individual with dementia is $174,000. 52
• Statistics given in an Alzheimer’s Association commissioned report, “Saving Lives, Saving Money: Dividends for Americans Investing in Alzheimer’s Research” (2003), estimate an increase in Medicaid costs of 14 percent for in-home care for people with memory loss and will continue to increase to $24 billion by 2010. 53
• Medicare costs increased from approximately $37 billion in 1980 to approximately $336 billion in 2005. These rising costs will only burden Medicare, a program that is struggling with escalating costs today. 54

Preventative measures as in any other health issue, are a means to decrease the prevalence rate. Healthy Lifestyles in Aging, Inc. provides consultation service

• to effectively decrease dementia through effective program plans that meet individual client need and
• provide outcome measurements through pretest and post test measurement using Dr. Folstein’s Mini Mental State Examination. 16