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Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the rate of older adults living with dementia was decreasing. The pandemic accelerated that decline, however, due to an increase in deaths among older adults living with dementia, according to a University of Michigan study.
The study, co-authored by Vicki Freedman, PhD, of the University of Michigan, and consultant Jennifer Cornman, PhD, used data from the National Health and Aging Trends Study and found that the rate of dementia, in average yearly terms, declined at 2.8% from 2011 through 2019 and at 3.1% from 2011 through 2021.
Their results were published in the Journals of Gerontology: Medical Sciences.
Experts generally have predicted an increase in the number of US older adults with dementia due to the large Baby Boom generation continuing to age. Baby boomers are turning 60 to 78 in 2024.
“This growth is likely to place additional pressures on already strained long term services care and support systems, including family members who provide the bulk of care to older adults with dementia and, consequently, may result in an upturn in adverse outcomes related to unmet care needs in later life,” the study authors said.
The study’s results, however, join a growing cohort of research finding a decline in dementia prevalence in the United States. This study adds to that research by analyzing the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the trend, finding the increase in mortality of older adults with dementia during the pandemic to be the driving force of the accelerating decline. --->READ MORE HERE
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Because of a sharp increase in deaths among older adults with dementia during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the rate of older adults with the disorder declined faster from 2011 to 2021 than it did through 2019, according to a University of Michigan study.
With heightened social isolation brought about by the onset of the pandemic, many speculated that dementia would become more commonplace among older adults, dampening the pre-pandemic trend toward lower rates. The researchers, led by University of Michigan Institute for Social Research scientist Vicki Freedman, found some support for this idea in 2020, but by 2021, the pattern was better described as an accelerating downward trend.
"Before the pandemic, dementia rates were declining in the U.S. At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the rate of dementia increased slightly, as many expected," Freedman said.
"But these increases were swamped by sharp increases in deaths among older adults living with dementia that occurred in 2020–2021. As a result, the downward trend in dementia for 2011 to 2021 was even steeper than the pre-pandemic trend."
The rate of dementia declined from 11.9% in 2011 to 9.2% in 2019, and, after a small uptick to 9.6% in 2020, dropped to 8.2% in 2021. In average yearly terms, the decline was 2.8% from 2011 through 2019, and 3.1% from 2011 through 2021.
The study results are published in the The Journals of Gerontology, Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences.
Freedman and co-author Jennifer Cornman of Jennifer C. Cornman Consulting used the National Health and Aging Trends Study to examine over time the percentage of the older population with dementia, developing dementia, and dying with and without dementia.
The researchers used information from approximately 48,000 annual interviews with adults 72 and older that took place from 2011 to 2021. Part of the National Institutes of Health, NHATS is designed to study trends in disability and functioning of the older U.S. population, including cognitive functioning. --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to relevant/related stories and resources:
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