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Wednesday, 27 November 2013

Dementia Life Expectancy

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By Jack Morgan


Dementia life expectancy is the measure of the time duration or how long an average individual will survive or expected to live after he or she has developed dementia. It has been found out that an average individual who has been diagnosed with dementia as a result of Alzheimer disease will live approximately for 4.5 years beyond the diagnosis.

Studies involving 13,000 people over the age of 65 years were conducted between the years 1991 and 2005 to enable doctors understand dementia and how long patients could live with it. During this period, 438 people developed AD or other forms of dementia. Then, 81% of those who developed dementia died before the study was completed.

The condition is caused by various situations like diseases that result to nerve cells degeneration like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. It is also associated to health condition that attack blood cells like stroke leading to multiple infarction dementia. At times, it can be due to excessive drug use and alcohol or nutritional deficiencies, specifically in folate and Vitamin B12.

Women lived for about 4.6 years after being diagnosed of dementia. On the other hand, men lived for only 4.1 years. Furthermore, people under 70 years of age lived for 10.7 years on average compared to those who were over 90 years of age and lived only for 3.8 years before they died. And patients who were frail at the time of diagnosis didn't live any longer than 3 years. The study concluded that the average life expectancy of a person who was diagnosed with AD or dementia was 4.5 years.

People with dementia in its first stage usually experience changes in thinking and memory like forgetfulness. This can be easily noticed by family members, but a person suffering from such condition might try to hide it by making up stories to fill memory gaps. At this point, the individual may also express annoyance or anger needing memory skills.

The most common causes of dementia in individual between the age of 45 years and 65 years are human immunodeficiency (HIV), Huntington's disease and multiple sclerosis (MS).

Even though patients can't change factors such as age or their gender after they get diagnosed with dementia, the study suggests that the level of care given to a person can significantly extend their life expectancy. People who take care of loved ones diagnosed with dementia must design a care plan and take advantage of any support groups and other resources available.

Dementia that is generally brought on by brain deprived of nutrients and oxygen as a result of shrinking arteries and strokes. This type of dementia is known as vascular dementia and the average dementia life expectancy for these patients is about five years or less.

Overall, the dementia life expectancy is really not predictable as with other diseases. It can progress for around decades and may shorten life especially at the later stages along with other health disorders like pneumonia. Understanding the stages and its progression and taking care of other needs is a must for people with dementia.




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