OBJECTIVES: Dementia patients are in need of more extensive personal care compared to other long-term care users. This results in a high economic impact of dementia on patients, families and healthcare systems. Due to the increasing prevalence of dementia worldwide, combined with limited healthcare expenditures, a better understanding of resource use in dementia care is needed. Therefore the aim of our study is the assessment of resource use in dementia in the most common setting: home-based care (informal caregivers). METHODS: The Erlanger Dementia Registry structure was set up in 2013. Both dementia patients and informal caregivers are interviewed separately with internationally approved valid instruments. Follow-up takes place after 6, 12 months and afterwards annually. Resource use in dementia is assessed via the ‘Resource Utilization in Dementia (RUD) instrument’. RESULTS: A total number of 50 informal caregivers (mean age=63, 61% female, 23% employed, 72% live together with the patient) were interviewed after the initial dementia diagnosis at baseline, and 22 study participants took part at the 1st follow-up. Informal caregivers were mainly spouses (72%) and children (22%). Main support was provided for instrumental activities of daily living (t0:77%; t6:86%), followed by activities of daily living (t0:37%; t6:52%) and supervision (t0:26%; t6:33%). Average hours for support 6 months after diagnosis were: IADL=4.3h/day (min=1.0,max=16.0), ADL=5,2h/day (min=2.0,max=16.0), and supervision=12.9h/day (min=1.0,max=24.0). The average monthly costs for informal caregivers 6 months after diagnosis (medication; additional disease-related costs) are 76 €. CONCLUSIONS: Our results highlight the significant impact of informal costs (time provided for care) in dementia care, occurring early in the disease course. For dementia patients cared for at home, informal costs put an additional economic burden on families. For future health policy planning in dementia, the perspective and inclusion of informal costs is essential. The research is funded by the European Commission, ICT FP7, project ID 287509.