AIBL is a study of over 1,100 people assessed over a long period of time ( > 4.5 years) to determine which biomarkers, cognitive characteristics, and health and lifestyle factors determine subsequent development of symptomatic Alzheimer’s Disease (AD).
The baseline inception cohort consisted of:
211 individuals with AD as defined by NINCDS-ADRDA (McKhann et al, 1984); 133 individuals with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) – a clinical syndrome characterized by reduced cognitive performance (often involving memory), which represents a high risk state for the development of frank AD (Petersen et al.,1999; Winblad et al., 2004); 768 healthy individuals without cognitive impairment. This group included volunteers with at least one copy of the ApoE e4 allele, volunteers without a copy of the ApoE e4 allele and 396 volunteers who expressed subjective concern about their memory function. Memory complaints were elicited by the response to the question, “do you have difficulties with your memory?”. Wiith Australia’s ageing population, the number of people suffering from dementia is expected to rise from 245,400 (1.1% of population) in 2009 to 1.13 million (3.2% of projected population) by 2050 (Access Economics Aug 2009). It is one of the fastest growing sources of major disease burden, overtaking coronary heart disease in total wellbeing cost by 2023 (Access Economics Aug 2009) and will become the third greatest source of health and residential aged care spending within about 2 decades. These costs alone will be around 1% GDP (Access Economics Aug 2009). By the 2060s, spending on dementia is set to outstrip that of any other health condition and is projected to be $83 billion (in 2006-07 dollars); around 11% of the entire and residential aged care sector spending (Access Economics Aug 2009).
Alzheimer’s Disease accounts for 50%-75% of dementia cases; delaying its onset by five years could nearly halve the cost of dementia to our society (Access Economics 2005), saving $8.9 billion per year in 2032 and $41.4 billion by 2062.