Explore Dementia Data
The Dementia DataHub analyzes Medicare claims and encounter data to report the diagnosed prevalence and incidence of dementia, and its associated mortality and payments. We use the term “Dementia” to broadly refer to Alzheimer’s disease dementia and Alzheimer’s disease related dementias (AD/ADRD), and other diagnoses that are sometimes used to indicate these conditions.
We identify dementia in Medicare data using diagnosis codes. People who had diagnosis codes that specifically state Alzheimer’s or related dementias in the prior three years are classified as either “Highly Likely” (codes on at least two different service dates) or “Likely” (diagnoses on only one service date) to have dementia. The “Possible” category contains people with much less certain diagnoses such as “Mild Cognitive Impairment” and “Age-related physical debility.”
According to our case definitions, 4.4 million people in Medicare had diagnostic evidence of “highly likely dementia,” 1.1 million had “likely dementia,” and another 2.6 million had “possible dementia” in 2020.