ADDI's Editorial Take: The GERAS Study - Japan

What is it and what does it include? 

GERAS Japan was an 18-month, prospective, multicenter, longitudinal, observational study conducted in 30 sites in different regions in Japan, designed to evaluate the costs and resource use associated with AD dementia for community-dwelling patients and their caregivers. Participants were enrolled from November 2016 to December 2017. Eligible patients were males and females aged ≥55 years old, who had received a diagnosis of probable AD according to the National Institute on Aging and Alzheimer’s Association and with a Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score of 26 or less. 

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 Japan. 

Has this dataset helped researchers understand Alzheimer’s and other dementias better? 

Of course!  

  • AD & Care costs: 

In 2019, researchers found that baseline results of GERAS-J showed that total monthly societal costs associated with AD dementia increased with AD severity. Caregiver-related costs were the largest cost component. Interventions are needed to decrease informal costs and decrease caregiver burden. December 2019 – DOI: 10.3233/JAD-190811