More People Are Living with Undiagnosed Dementia

by WJHD:A new study finds a majority of people who have Dementia have never seen a doctor about their memory and thinking problems.University of Michigan researchers studied nearly 300 people with Dementia. They found that only 45% of them had seen a doctor about their memory and thinking problems. This means that more than half of the people studied never had an evaluation of their cognitive abilities.Dr. Ronan Factora from the Cleveland Clinic noted, "A lot of people that are older will just chock off these memory complaints to just getting older, but the important thing is to not ignore them. To just say you're getting older, you've missed the opportunity to see if whether or not there is really something going on." It turns out married people were more than twice as likely to have had a screening as unmarried people.Doctors agree with researchers who say people in their 60's and 70's should not blow off memory problems as just a sign of aging. "If you start to have problems doing more complex tasks like managing your finances, or taking your medications regularly, or you get disoriented with your driving, those can be early signs that we're thinking about early dementia," Dr. Factora said.Complete findings for this study can be found in the journal "Neurology."