One to One with Bill Goodman:
Frederick Schmitt
aired December 8 and 10, 2006
Around 74,000 Kentuckians—one of every 10 people over the age of 65, and nearly half of those over 85—have Alzheimer’s disease today, and that number is expected to climb to 97,000 by 2025 as the population continues to age. On this edition of One to One, host Bill Goodman talks about the implications of those statistics for the state as a whole and the prospects for preventing or curing this devastating condition with Frederick A. Schmitt, Ph.D., a neuropsychologist and Alzheimer’s researcher at the University of Kentucky’s Sanders-Brown Center on Aging.
At UK’s Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, Schmitt studies various forms of dementia, of which Alzheimer’s is the most common. This progressive degenerative brain disease currently cannot be prevented or cured.
In the interview, Schmitt discusses several worrisome trends in Alzheimer’s disease statistics. Ironically, one such trend involves progress in another area of medicine: Thanks to advances in treatment, people with Down syndrome are living longer—but older persons with that condition are at very high risk for Alzheimer’s.
Kentucky’s population is also growing more diverse, and research shows that the African-American and Hispanic populations have higher rates of Alzheimer’s. Meanwhile, early-onset Alzheimer’s, in which symptoms appear before the age of 65, is growing among all groups. Newly analyzed data suggest that as many as one million Americans under the age of 65 have dementia or cognitive impairment.
All of these factors, Schmitt says, will put a severe strain on Kentucky’s health care system in the coming years and make Alzheimer’s a critical public policy issue.
Related Resource:
- Alzheimer’s in Kentucky, a 2004 KET production, is available for viewing online. The accompanying web pages include links to state and national resources for learning more about coping with the disease.
