More than 5 million elderly people have a hard time remembering things, sorting through daily decisions and even sometimes knowing what day it is, according to the first national estimate of how commonly the minds of aging Americans are starting to fade.

Using detailed evaluations of a nationally representative sample of 856 people age 71 and older, the federally sponsored study concluded that 22 percent have begun to see their mental faculties decline, which translates to 5.4 million people.

“It’s a huge number,” said Brenda Plassman, a psychiatrist at Duke University Medical Center who led the study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. “This is the first time we have an estimate of the number of Americans who have this condition,” she said, noting that the findings show that mild cognitive problems are as common as diabetes in this age group. Combined with a previous estimate that 3.4 million Americans have full dementia, such as Alzheimer’s disease, the new findings mean that more than one-third of people age 71 and older have some diminished mental function, the researchers said. About 25 million people in this age group live in the United States.

“This is important because the number of people with cognitive impairment is likely to increase significantly as the baby boomers age,” Plassman said, noting that the new research found that 12 percent of those with mild problems go on to develop dementia and about 8 percent die each year.

The magnitude of the situation surprised some experts. “Five million people is a lot,” said Richard Suzman of the National Institute on Aging, which funded the research.

“These problems are not severe enough to stop a person from doing their daily activities. However, the problems may cause them to have mild difficulty in completing their daily activities,” Plassman said.

Cognitive impairment is no longer considered a normal and inevitable change of aging. Although older adults are at higher risk than the rest of the population, changes in cognitive function often call for prompt and aggressive action.

Nearly a quarter of those with declining mental function had a chronic medical condition, such as diabetes or heart disease, which appeared to be the underlying cause of their cognitive problems.

The findings underscore the need for families to be on the lookout for signs that their loved ones are starting to lose their sharpness.

To assess mental sharpness or cognition, professionals the Mini-Mental_State_Examination (MMSE) or Folstein test,a brief 30-point questionnaire test. It is commonly used in medicine to screen for dementia. In the time span of about 10 minutes it samples various functions including arithmetic, memory and orientation. It was introduced by Folstein et al in 1975,^[1] and is widely used with small modifications.

Family members and caregivers should be especially aware of rapid on unusual changes in the cognition of loved ones. Acute problems such as stroke, dehydration, kidney failure and serious infection all cause impairments in mental functioning and should be addressed quickly. Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease most often occur over a much longer period of time. Consult a medical professional for more information.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 25th, 2008 at 12:41 am and is filed under Alzheimer's Disease, Healthy Living, Mental Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.