Dementia Mortality in the United States, 1999–2016

Background: In 2016, Alzheimer’s disease ranked as the 6th leading cause of death in the United States. Some studies have suggested that the number of deaths due to Alzheimer’s disease could be higher than reported in official mortality statistics, given the diagnostic and reporting challenges associated with dementia. In this research, we present estimates of mortality attributed to dementia, defined as Alzheimer’s disease plus three other dementia causes with similar physical signs and symptoms. The four causes of death examined, based on ICD-10, are Unspecified Dementia (F03), Alzheimer’s disease (G30), Vascular Dementia (F01), and Other Degenerative Diseases of the Nervous System (G31), which includes Lewy Body disease and frontotemporal dementia. We examine the percent distribution of these causes by age, sex, race and Hispanic origin, and state. Trends over time are presented. Results: There were 249,605 deaths attributed to dementia as an underlying cause in 2016: 47% due to Alzheimer’s disease and 40% due to Unspecified Dementia. The prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease and Unspecified Dementia as underlying causes of death varied widely by state and has changed over time. In addition to deaths where dementia is recorded as the underlying cause of death, another 125,195 deaths mentioned dementia as a contributing cause on the death certificate. If all four dementia causes were considered together, dementia would have been the third leading cause of death in the United States in 2016.