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Sep 21, 2009 06:15 PM | 6
Paying bills or counting change may seem like basic life skills to most, but for those who are about to slip into older-age dementia, the tasks can become increasingly difficult. And as fiscal functionality begins to fail, Alzheimer's disease might be less than a year away, a new study suggests.
"Impairments in financial skills and judgments are often the first functional changes demonstrated by patients with incipient dementia," wrote the authors of the paper, which was published online today in Neurology.
Although the relationship between money management skills and dementia has been established for some time, the researchers' focus on declining skills as an early indicator showed that once these abilities start to slip, the diagnosable disease is likely not far behind.
Researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham gave 163 older adults—76 of whom were deemed healthy and 87 of whom were diagnosed as being mildly cognitively impaired (MCI)—a financial exam, which included exercises such as paying for groceries and making investment decisions. They found that those subjects who were already slightly impaired performed more poorly on aspects of the test, such as checkbook use, than the control group.
Following up a year later, however, only the MCI patients whose diagnoses had advanced to dementia showed significantly decreased performance on the test. By the year-end test, those whose status had declined to Alzheimer's had checkbook management skills about 20 percent below those of the control group. The authors note, however, that the more impaired patients' knowledge of a checkbook's functions remained steady, indicating that unlike the procedural, executive-function wherewithal required for balancing a checkbook, understanding a checkbook is "likely mediated by long-term semantic memory," the authors write, and less likely to be impacted as quickly by Alzheimer's.
"The capacity to manage one's own financial affairs is critical to success in independent living," the authors write. "Doctors should proactively monitor people with MCI for declining financial skills and advise them and their caregivers about steps they can take to watch for signs of poor money management," such as obtaining a cosigner for checking accounts or switching to online bill payments.
The number of people with Alzheimer's disease is likely to exceed previous estimates for the next 40 years, according to a separate report. The report, commissioned by Alzheimer's Disease International and released today for World Alzheimer's Day, estimates that by next year, 35.6 million people worldwide will have the disease, and in 2050, the number is expected to reach 115.4 million. A 2005 report in the Lancet had projected smaller numbers, Bloomberg News reported. But the more recent research cites rapid increases in cases from middle- and low-income nations as driving the surge.
Image courtesy of iStockphoto/red_moon_rise
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6 Comments
Add CommentHow do we know that this is due to a math specific deficit as opposed to a more general lack of ability or just plain old memory loss? Maybe Alzheimer's patients are bad at counting because they just can't remember what they are doing.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhether it's decision making, judgment, basic math, memory loss or other brain function, it is increasingly important to stimulate all these cognitive capabilities on a regular basis. One is rarely used in isolation. Cognitive cross training programs can help....at the early stages of dementia and Alzheimer's disease or in advance of cognitive decline. -- Laura Fay, CEO, HAPPYneuron.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is not true in all cases. I have a genetic disorder that impacted my temporal lobes and other areas when high levels of ammonia occurred. There is also new research that shows that one of the innocent childhood diseases may impact some of our functions roseola, the three day measles, HHV6.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have found through a use of amino acid supplements, vitamins, and some experimental supplements that I have been able to improve the financial --math skills. It takes practice and you have to approach math as a language.
I have a geneticist, metabolic specialist, cell biologist research specialist; neurologist, hepatologist; a psychiatrist that specializes in liver disorders and I have a genetic metabolic liver disorder. I am a living lab rat for them and me. I am finding ways to improve and know when I miss. It is not Alzheimers. So everyone should not be lumped together. There are over 4o something mitochondrial disorders that can impact these areas and tools are being created to overcome some of the problems.
PS, my disorder screws with my spelling also. My brain can lie to me as to what I see. Spell check is important. After reading I see errors, but not immediately. Another issue with working memory.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGreat post and ideas! Im going to share this with the rest of my team as we work more with enterprise-level clients.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThanks and Regards/-
<a href="http://entreper.com" rel="nofollow">Jason Webb </a>
Yeah, I am not seeing the connection between forgetting to count and Alzheimer. I think it could equally be due to old age memory loss. But then again, this article isn't the entire comprehensive research either. http://beautywired.com/fit/blog
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