Neuropsychiatric symptoms in patients with dementia and the longitudinal costs of informal care in the Cache County population

Introduction Severity of dementia and neuropsychiatric symptoms contribute to increasing informal care costs. We examined which neuropsychiatric symptoms subdomains (NPS-SD) were associated with informal costs in a population-based sample. Methods Dementia progression and informal costs (2015 dollars) were estimated from the Cache County Dementia Progression Study. Overall NPS and specific NPS-SD were assessed with the Neuropsychiatric Inventory. Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE with gamma-distribution/log-link) modeled the relationship between NPS-SDs and informal cost trajectories. Results Two hundred eighty participants (52.1% female; age M = 85.67, SD = 5.60) exhibited an adjusted cost increase of 5.6% (P = .005), 6.4% (P
Highlights • Specific neuropsychiatric symptoms/areas affect informal costs of dementia care differently over time; some have little to no impact. • Agitation/aggression, affective, and psychosis increase persons with dementia informal costs of dementia care over time. • Apathy increases rate of change in informal costs of dementia care over time.