Key Words public health impact, Alzheimer's disease, Alzheimer's care s Abstract Recent developments in basic research suggest that therapeutic breakthroughs may occur in Alzheimer's disease treatment over the coming decades. To model the potential magnitude and nature of the effect of these advances, historical data from congestive heart failure and Parkinson's disease were used. Projections indicate that therapies which delay disease onset will markedly reduce overall disease prevalence, whereas therapies to treat existing disease will alter the proportion of cases that are mild as opposed to moderate/severe. The public health impact of such changes would likely involve both the amount and type of health services needed. Particularly likely to arise are new forms of outpatient services, such as disease-specific clinics and centers. None of our models predicts less than a threefold rise in the total number of persons with Alzheimer's disease between 2000 and 2050. Therefore, Alzheimer's care is likely to remain a major public health problem during the coming decades.

Attending to the welfare and ongoing training of workers who have demonstrated job commitment may lessen their tendency to become jaded over time or seek job opportunities elsewhere. Further, the attitudes the staff hold related to dementia and the training they receive to provide dementia care are important for their own well-being.

Improvement in resident quality of life may be achieved by improved training and deployment of staff.

Various measures and sources of data provide different perspectives on quality of life. No "gold standard" exists; so a combination of methods and sources is likely to provide the most complete picture of quality of life.

This article describes the prevalence, assessment, and treatment of, as well as characteristics associated with, the food and fluid intake of 407 residents with dementia in 45 assisted living facilities and nursing homes. Overall, 54% of observed residents had low food intake, and 51% had low fluid intake. Staff monitoring of residents, having meals in a public dining area, and the presence of noninstitutional features were each associated with higher food and fluid intake.