U.S. Alzheimer's 2017 spending may reach $259 billion

The United States may spend $259 billion this year on acute health care and paid long-term care for people with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia, or about 10 percent more than they spent in 2016.

The Alzheimer’s Association has included that figure and many others in the latest edition of its free dementia reference book, 2017 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures.

The Chicago-based association estimates that 5.5 million Americans now have Alzheimer’s dementia, up from 5.4 million last year.

About 200,000 of the people with Alzheimer’s dementia are under 65.

Related: David Hyde Pierce: U.S. needs caregiver support yardstick

People with dementia and their families may spend $56 billion on care out of their own pocket this year, or about 20 percent more than they spent in 2016.

One table in the book describes conditions other than Alzheimer’s disease that can cause dementia.

Other causes include vascular dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies, frontotemporal lobar degeneration, Parkinson’s disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and normal pressure hydrocephalus.