1 In 7 Alzheimer's Patients Lives Alone, Creating Balancing Act For Families

More Alzheimer's Patients Living Alone

WASHINGTON — Elaine Vlieger is making some concessions to Alzheimer’s. She’s cut back on her driving, frozen dinners replace once elaborate cooking, and a son monitors her finances. But the Colorado woman lives alone and isn’t ready to give up her house or her independence.

Some 800,000 people with Alzheimer’s, roughly 1 in 7 Americans with the disease, live alone in their communities, according to surprising new data from the Alzheimer’s Association. It’s a different picture of the mind-destroying disease than the constant caregiving that eventually these people will need.

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