With the steadily aging Baby Boomer generation pushing more and more Americans into their golden years, the risk of more widespread dementia and Alzheimer's diagnoses has continued to grow — a trend that doesn't look to be reversing course anytime soon. But despite the fact that these debilitating brain health conditions are becoming serious concerns for increasingly more people, Americans aren't taking it to heart. Just the opposite: A new study finds that more than half of Americans with dementia have never had a single screening conducted of their cognitive thinking or memory support capacities.
A new study, published last month in the journal Neurology, surveyed 300 people who were at least 70-years-old and suffered from dementia and found that 55 percent of this group "had never had their thinking and memory abilities evaluated by a doctor," writes HealthDay News. Extrapolated over a nationwide population, this would mean about 1.8 million Americans with dementia have never once submitted themselves to a dementia screening.
What makes this especially disconcerting is that one out of every eight Americans above age 65, and one out of every three above 80, suffers from dementia. Screenings are crucial for "early evaluation and identification of people with dementia [because they] may help them receive care earlier," says study author Dr. Vikas Kotagal.
With early diagnoses, not only do patients and physicians become better aware of the onset of dementia, but family members do as well. This enables them to know what to look out for and when to intervene, if necessary, to help dementia sufferers resolve day-to-day problems that may arise and enjoy an overall better quality of life compared to those kept in the dark.
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