A new study is uncovering just how tough it can be financially to live with dementia. The report, published Dec. 29 in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, found that nearly 56% of people with dementia face financial hardships. Those financial challenges are linked with worse reported satisfaction with life and healthcare.
Researchers used data from the Health and Retirement Study, which includes adults over the age of 52 and spans 2010 to 2020. The study examined data from 534 participants with dementia who shared details on satisfaction with their lives and their healthcare. The researchers compared that data to information from questionnaires from 576 people who were newly diagnosed with cancer and receiving treatment.
The people were asked about financial strain in the last year of their lives and whether it was upsetting; they were also asked if it was hard to pay their bills. The data was compared to information from a previous study, which included information from the same people.
According to the findings, 56% of people with dementia said they experienced financial hardship compared to 50.4% of people with cancer. There were differences between groups in terms of the age of disease onset; an earlier diagnosis was linked to a higher proportion of financial hardship.
In the dementia group, people who experienced financial hardship in the previous study were less likely to report being completely or very satisfied with life and less likely to say they were satisfied with their healthcare compared with people who didn’t report financial hardship in the previous report. Results were similar in the group of people who had cancer.
People with dementia may have more intense financial hardship than those with cancer, the authors contend. This could be because the costs are incurred for longer periods of time — especially if the person is diagnosed at a young age. The more severe hardships could also be due to the lack of long-term care (LTC) insurance to assist with getting treatment for dementia.
Medicare and private insurance do not cover most long-term care services, the authors noted. Although Medicaid and private LTC insurances do cover most LTC services, Medicaid coverage among adults 65+ is very low at 7.6%, and only about 10% of adults have LTC insurance. Most older adults take on the expenses on an out-of-pocket basis, the authors added.
