An alarming study of people with early dementia does not know the symptoms, a study has found.
Researchers from the University of Michigan looked at 300 people over 65 who scored low on cognitive tests, a sign that they likely had dementia.
The team asked participants if anyone had ever diagnosed them with dementia.
Of those, 80 percent claimed they had never been told they had dementia and were unaware they were showing its signs.
The proportion was even higher among Mexican Americans, who made up the bulk of the study population. The team found that 85 percent of this group did not know they had dementia.
The findings come as more research sheds light on the early signs of the disease, which affects 8 million Americans.
Although most people know that memory loss is a telltale sign of dementia, other early signs, such as difficulty planning events, keeping track of bills, and difficulty finding the right word, are less obvious.
The researchers said these patients may not know they have dementia because their doctors do not take enough time to screen them and are not trained to recognize early signs.
A new study shows that 80 percent of dementia patients do not know they have dementia. The photo shows Wendy Williams, whose diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia was made public in 2023
Being unable to learn new tasks and struggling to stay focused on a single task could be a sign of dementia – the memory-robbing disorder that affects nearly 8 million Americans
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Dr. Lewis Morgenstern, study author and professor of neurology, neurosurgery and emergency medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School, said: ‘Ignorance about the diagnosis of dementia is a public health problem that must be addressed.
‘A diagnosis of dementia provides the opportunity to seek treatment and home care to help both patients and caregivers.
If the diagnosis is not made, or the understanding of the diagnosis is unclear, it is a missed opportunity.’
The researchers looked at 1,562 adults over the age of 65 who were recruited through the Brain Attack Surveillance in Corpus Christi (BASIC) cognitive study in Nueces County, Texas.
Of those, 322 scored low enough on cognitive tests to be considered patients with ‘probable dementia’.
The average age of participants was 76 years and 55 percent of adults surveyed were women.
The team found that 81 percent of adults with probable dementia had not been told they had the condition.
For Mexican-Americans, this number rose to 85 percent.
In addition, only seven percent of patients with suspected dementia had a primary care physician, so their chances of being screened during a routine visit were lower.
Josh Martins-Caulfield, first study author and medical student at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, said this knowledge gap could be due to the lack of a doctor-patient relationship.
He said: ‘The doctor may not diagnose the patient or withhold the diagnosis of dementia.
‘In practice, doctors often hesitate to diagnose dementia, partly due to insufficient time for individual patients to carry out the screening process or not following dementia-specific training.
‘The discomfort in making the diagnosis may also lead to waiting for patients or relatives to express concerns about memory problems, rather than proactively initiating discussions.’
Currently, nearly 8 million Americans suffer from some form of dementia, and approximately 500,000 new cases are diagnosed each year.
The number of diagnoses is also expected to rise from 60,000 in 2020 to 179,000 per year in 2060.
Although the root cause of dementia is still debated, scientists believe the disease is likely the result of an abnormal buildup of proteins – amyloid and tau – in and around brain cells.
Symptoms may include memory loss, confusion, trouble finding the right thing, difficulty completing previously simple tasks, mood swings, and poor judgment.
There were several limitations to the new study, the most important of which was its reliance on self-reported data, which could be subject to bias.
Concentrating the population around one county could also lead to a less diverse sample size.
The research was published in the journal on Tuesday Journal of General Internal Medicine.