Easily Observable Sign Dementia Patients Experience 1 Year Before Being Diagnosed

Dementia has been in the news these past several months amid speculation that the cognitive issues displayed by President Joe Biden could be linked to some form of the disease.

Although Biden is surrounded by aides who keep his secrets and staff who make his life easier, a new study said that for the rest of us, a spike in trips to an emergency room could be connected to dementia.

The study, published in JAMA Open Network, analyzed 1,779 dementia patients with an average age of 82, a year older than Biden.

The study found that seniors later diagnosed with dementia were 40 percent more likely to visit an emergency room in the year before they were diagnosed than seniors not diagnosed with dementia.

In the month prior to diagnosis, dementia patients were admitted to an ER at a rate about seven times higher than the rate for patients without dementia, according to the U.K.’s Daily Mail.

A new study suggests another reason to be wary of falls: They may be an early warning sign of impending Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of dementia.
https://t.co/osMc8jbYaM#AlzheimersAwareness #FallPrevention #DementiaRisk #CognitiveHealth #SeniorSafety #EarlyDetection pic.twitter.com/JRcYWYW9CU

— Fisher Center for Alzheimer’s Research Foundation (@FisherCenter) October 19, 2024

The Mail noted that falls and injuries caused by fading coordination and cognition that triggered the ER visits were the problem — the ER visits simply were an indicator.

“The Emergency Department (ED) setting provides a valuable opportunity to screen for cognitive impairment, which might otherwise go unnoticed until it has progressed substantially,” the outlet said.

“Additionally, ED visits may trigger a diagnostic cascade toward dementia, reflecting the complex nature of dementia’s identification.”

The Mail said 58 percent of American adults who likely have dementia are not diagnosed or not aware where their health is going.

That leads doctors to encourage dementia screening for seniors who — like Biden — find themselves dealing with increasing problems in cognition, communication and coordination. Not all such cognitive issues are linked to dementia.

“An ED visit can be a significant challenge for persons living with cognitive impairment, their caregivers, and for healthcare professionals — but it can also present an important opportunity to address unmet needs and prevent future ED visits and hospitalizations,” said Ab Brody, a professor at New York University and a co-author of the study, according to a news release on the New York University website. Brody used “ED” as the acronym for the emergency room.

“How can we turn an ED visit from a crisis into an opportunity?” he said.

“These visits often mark the beginning of the journey to diagnosis, offering a great opportunity for healthcare providers to identify cognitive issues early and provide the support that patients and their caregivers really need,” said Cameron Gettel, an assistant professor of emergency medicine at Yale School of Medicine and the study’s lead author.

As noted by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, dementia is somewhat of an umbrella term for “a condition that makes someone unable to remember, think clearly, or make decisions while doing everyday activities.”

Alzheimer’s disease is the most widely known form of dementia.

The CDC estimates that 6.7 million older Americans have Alzheimer’s disease — with that expected to double by 2060.

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