(CNN)Patterns of missing credit card and loan payments could be an early indicator of dementia years before diagnosis, a new study says.
The study, published Monday in the medical journal JAMA, looked at Medicare patients living alone across the United States and analyzed their credit data and payments over time. Researchers found that patients with Alzheimer's disease and related dementia were more likely to miss payments up to six years before getting diagnosed, the study said. And, those poor financial actions led them to subprime credit scores two and a half years before diagnosis, as opposed to the patients without dementia. "I think we were a little surprised that it was so common that we could really see it in the data," lead author Lauren Hersch Nicholas told CNN. " Doctors colloquially say that you should look for dementia in the checkbook, but I don't think we had any sense of for how many years in advance these effects could be happening."
(CNN)Patterns of missing credit card and loan payments could be an early
indicator of dementia years before diagnosis, a new study says.
The study, published Monday in the medical journal JAMA, looked at Medicare patients living alone across the United States and analyzed their credit
data and payments over time.
Researchers found that patients with Alzheimer's disease and related
dementia were more likely to miss payments up to six years before getting
diagnosed, the study said. And, those poor financial actions led them to
subprime credit scores two and a half years before diagnosis, as opposed to the patients without dementia.
"I think we were a little surprised that it was so common that we could
really see it in the data," lead author Lauren Hersch Nicholas told CNN. "
Doctors colloquially say that you should look for dementia in the checkbook, but I don't think we had any sense of for how many years in advance these
effects could be happening."