Alzheimer’s disease has been a growing issue in the United States in the past few decades. Of course, the topic of Alzheimer’s disease itself is too broad; therefore, I chose to focus on the rising rates and prevalence of the disease in the United States. If the trend continue with no treatment or cure provided to citizens, it is likely to incur serious medical and economical damages on citizens, and I wanted to explore that. Moreover, the reason behind the relatively new prevalence was intriguing.
The topic is relevant to nursing, as well as nursing education because today five million Americans have Alzheimer’s disease today . By 2050, researchers expect that number may nearly triple, leaving nearly fourteen million Americans suffering with the disease if a cure or treatment is not found. I chose it because its rising prevalence was dramatic and seems to largely ignored. Based on the previously stated projections, even if an individual is not working in a retirement community, rest home, in-home care facility, or neurology department, it would be impossible to not work with an individual who has Alzheimer’s Disease, now or by 2050. Nurses must be educated on the condition in order to help those living with it, in an effort to care properly for the patient in question. Moreover, it is important for the nursing community to be educated on this disease, as it could one day likely affect them, or their family. As the disease increases in prevalence, it is also likely protocol will change, which will mean it needs to be an integral part of any educational system. The prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease is becoming rampant, in fact, basic measures to care for an individual should be a part of practice protocol. Simple things that can avoid upsetting the patient, such as not correcting them if they think it is a different year, or they think somebody famous is coming to see them, should be common practice because it can afford the patient with better care during emergencies, or while they are away from their primary healthcare provider.
With this in mind, I sought to ask whether life expectancy was partially the reason the United States was seeing a rise in Alzheimer’s disease and, if so, were lifestyle choices a factor when the disease was not biologically inherited? For example, in 1940 the life expectancy of the average American was between sixty and sixty-five. Today it is between seventy and eighty, depending on access to healthcare. Alzheimer’s disease typically only affects individuals over the age of sixty-five.
Quantitatively, the question would allow us to gather data from 1940 to now. We would see there is little information on Alzheimer’s related deaths from 1940 to 1960; people were not living long enough for it to be a primary cause for concern . However, in the 1970’s and 1980’s, with the emergence of healthcare technology, people began to live longer. With it, our brains began to degrade after the age of sixty-five and the affects were observable. Moreover, we began dying from said degeneration, most notably, Alzheimer’s disease .
Sometimes Alzheimer’s does not strike based on age or genetics, which left me to ask if there were lifestyle factors that affected if an individual was stricken with the disease. Differences and similarities in the quality of the lives of individuals who received a diagnosis before they were sixty-five without a familial history would need to be assessed, making it appropriate for a qualitative study, rather than a quantitative study. A pattern of choices would need to be found to achieve conclusive results. Such results could not be seen or achieved using a qualitative study.
References
Mayeux, R., & Stern, Y. (2012). Epidemiology of Alzheimer Disease. Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Medicine, 136-142.
