What is it and what does it include?
GERAS is an 18-month, multicentre, prospective, non-interventional cohort study conducted in France, Germany, and the UK, designed to evaluate the costs and resource use associated with AD dementia for community-dwelling patients and their caregivers. Participants were enrolled between October 2010 and September 2011. Inclusion criteria were community-dwelling patients, aged at least 55 years, presenting within the normal course of clinical care, diagnosed with probable AD dementia according to the National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke and the Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders Association criteria, with a Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score of ≤26 points, and with an informal caregiver who was willing to participate in the study and undertake responsibility for the patient for at least 6 months of the year. Information was collected for patients and caregivers at the baseline visit and at 6, 12, and 18 months during routine care visits.
How can I use this dataset to advance my research?
This dataset is ideal if:
- you’re analyzing care costs and their association to AD severity over time.
- you’re studying health care use, costs, and clinical outcomes over time for amyloid positive participants with early stages of AD in France, Germany, and the UK.
Has this dataset helped researchers understand Alzheimer’s and other dementias better?
Of course!
- AD & Care costs:
In 2013, researchers found that informal care costs formed the greatest proportion of total societal costs, increasing with AD severity independent of costing method. Longitudinal data will provide information on cost trends with disease progression. June 2013 – DOI: 10.3233/JAD-122392