OBJECTIVES: To examine medical resource utilization patterns prior to and post Alzheimer’s disease (AD) diagnosis in UK primary care. METHODS:  Newly diagnosed patients with non-early onset AD between January 1, 2008 and December 31, 2010 were identified from the UK CPRD-GOLD database. The index date was defined as the first AD diagnosis.  Eligible patients had a continuous record for the 3-year prior (index) period and 1-year post period, and were ≥65 years of age.  Controls were identified by matching to AD patients on year of birth, gender, region, and Charlson co-morbidity index with a 2:1 matching ratio.  Medical resource utilization was calculated over the 4-year study period at 6-monthly intervals.   T-tests, chi-square tests, and Wilcoxon sum-rank tests (depending on the data type and distribution) were used comparing between AD and control. RESULTS: Cohorts of 3896 AD patients and 7792 controls were extracted. At index date, patients had a mean age (SD) of 79.8 (6.5) years and 65% were female. The mean primary care consultation rate per 6-month was higher in the AD cohort than the control cohort over the total study period (p<0.05) and showed a gradual increase in  the controls over the 4 years (from 5 - 7 consultations), while the AD cohort showed a clear increase in the 6-months prior to the index (10 consultations) and stayed at this high rate over the 1-year post-diagnosis period.  The proportion of patients with a secondary care referral was higher within the AD cohort than the control cohort (37% vs. 25% over the 4-year period, p<0.05), with the difference peaking in the 6-month prior to AD diagnosis (17% vs. 5%, p<0.05).    CONCLUSIONS:  A clear increase in primary care consultations in the 6-month period prior to AD diagnosis and its continuation in the year post-diagnosis suggest AD imposes a substantial burden on UK primary care.