2016 Volume 17 Issue 1 Pages 8-13
This study analyzed the social cost of the Dementia (ICD-10：F01,F03,G30) in Japan from the published data. We estimated it using the Cost of illness method (COI method). The total cost increased 1.78 times in 10 years from ¥1.20 trillion in 2002 to ¥2.13 trillion in 2011. When we calculated the contribution of each cost of the overall increase, it consisted of 12.5% in Medical cost, 5.8% in Morbidity cost, 6.7% in Mortality cost, and 75.1% in Care service cost (43.9% in Home care cost, and 19.0% in Community-based care cost,12.2% in Facility care cost). It was difficult to attribute all to the aging population, but it could be understood partly because of social-well recognition as well as early diagnosis of dementia with advances in medical technology. Currently, “Deinstitutionalization” is being carried out in Japanese medical policy. The relative percentage of the cost of out-of-hospital and out-of-facilities (Out-patient expenses, Community service cost, and Home service cost) had risen from 20.1% in 2002 to 43.5% in 2011. In particular, the Care service cost had 76.7% of the total social cost and accounted for 75.1 % of the total increase. How to manage the high contribution of Care service cost in the super-aged Japanese society is an important issue to be considered.
