A loved one’s dementia diagnosis causes great anxiety for families, and those feelings are often exacerbated by decisions surrounding nursing home care. A new study addresses life expectancy after being diagnosed with dementia and has established estimates of when a person diagnosed will typically be admitted to a nursing home.
the studyrecently published in a medical journal BMJserves as a systematic review of previous studies on survival from dementia diagnosis and nursing home admission.
Dementia is a neurological disease that affects a person’s memory and personality, and is a major concern for an aging society. The impact of dementia-related diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia will further increase over the next decade. more 55 million people There are people living with dementia all over the world, and the number is estimated to increase. 153 million According to 2021 data, by 2050.
Understanding the prognosis of dementia
The Netherlands-based research team aimed to better understand the prognosis of dementia, or the expected course of the condition over time.
To reach their goal, researchers looked at 261 studies published between 1984 and 2024 that included more than 5 million people with dementia (average age 79 years, 63% women). We investigated 235 cases related to survival and 79 cases related to admission to a nursing home). They focused on the life expectancy of men and women diagnosed with dementia.
They conclude that for women, life expectancy is 9 years at age 60 and 4.5 years at age 85. On the other hand, for men, it is 6.5 years at age 60 and just over 2 years at age 85.
Researchers found that dementia reduces life expectancy by about two years based on diagnosis at age 85, three to four years for diagnosis at age 80, and up to 13 years for diagnosis at age 65. did.
Additionally, researchers observed certain trends in the review, including average survival up to 1.4 years longer in Asian populations and people with pre-existing conditions. alzheimer’s disease compared to other types of dementia.
read more: Why aggression is a common symptom in people with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease
Admission period to special nursing home
Researchers also estimated the average length of nursing home stay after diagnosis to be just over three years. Researchers determined that 13% of people were hospitalized within a year of diagnosis. This number increased to 35 percent three years after diagnosis and 57 percent five years after diagnosis. However, the researchers noted that these estimates do not reflect all cases of dementia and should be considered with caution.
The researchers acknowledged that factors such as differences in study methods and inconsistent reporting of socioeconomic status, race, and pre-existing conditions may have influenced the observed estimates. They argue that future studies need to report on this situation to fully understand the overall outcome of dementia.
“Future research on individualized prognosis will ideally include the patient at diagnosis, financial or personal factors, social factors, disease stage, and comorbidities, while going beyond survival alone. “There is a need to evaluate relevant functional outcome measures,” the authors write.
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Jack Knudson is an associate editor at Discover and has a strong interest in environmental science and history. Before joining Discover in 2023, she studied journalism at Ohio University’s Scripps College of Communication and previously interned at Recycling Today magazine.
