The economics of decision-making in dementia care and related life-limiting illness: a narrative review
Ana Maksimovic, Simona Grassi, Clare Ellis-Smith, Peter May · 2026
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Description
Maksimovic and co-authors reviewed in 2026 how economic thinking explains decisions in dementia care and similar life-limiting illness. Such decisions are shared among patients, family carers, and professionals, and they drive much of the cost. The search spanned four databases plus targeted economics sources. From 9,854 studies, 62 were kept for close reading.
Six economic concepts organized the evidence. They are the principal-agent problem, uncertainty, and asymmetric information. The empathy gap and hyperbolic discounting follow, and the non-linear value of time completes the set. Together they help explain familiar patterns, like high spending at the end of life. They also explain why advance care planning works unevenly. Global dementia costs were estimated above 1.3 trillion dollars, half of it unpaid family care time. The authors call for dynamic three-way communication as the practical fix.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Ana Maksimovic, Simona Grassi, Clare Ellis-Smith, Peter May |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 64 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |