WASHINGTON — By 2060, nearly 14 million people in the U.S. will be living with dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease — placing substantial demands on the health care system and caregivers. The annual economic cost of dementia in the U.S. was estimated at $305 billion in 2020, and is expected to rise to $1.5 trillion by 2050.

Social and behavioral science research can point to possible pathways for slowing or preventing the development of dementia, or easing its social and economic impacts — pathways that biological and pharmaceutical research cannot provide. For example, social science research can improve our understanding of the socio-economic factors that affect cognitive health, identify the most effective ways to communicate health information to those at risk, or suggest policy remedies for inequitable access to health care.

Reducing the Impact of Dementia in America: A Decadal Survey of Behavioral and Social Science Research, a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, charts a path forward for the next 10 years of research on dementia in the behavioral and social sciences. The report recommends that research prioritize improving the lives of people affected by dementia and of their caregivers, rectifying disparities, developing innovations that can improve quality of care and social supports, easing the economic costs of dementia, and pursing advances in researchers’ ability to study dementia.

The report also says research will be most effective if it is coordinated to avoid redundant studies, ensures findings can be implemented in clinical and community settings, and takes policy and socio-economic implications into account throughout the course of a study. Funders of dementia-related research should incentivize these approaches and others in their guidelines for awarding research grants.

The report is available for immediate release.  For reporter inquiries, please contact the Office of News and Public Information at tel. 202-334-2138 or e-mail news@nas.edu.