Seniors with mild cognitive impairment are much less likely to receive treatments for a heart attack while in the hospital, data analysis has shown. A misunderstanding about this age-related cognitive condition may be to blame.
Individuals with mild cognitive impairment are 35% less likely to receive cardiac catheterization and 45% less likely to receive coronary revascularization than people without the condition. That may be because clinicians and family members overestimate the risk of dementia after a diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment, said study author Deborah Levine, M.D., University of Michigan.
While it’s true that invasive treatments may not be recommended for those with advanced dementia or a limited life expectancy, mild cognitive impairment does not fall into that category, Levine explained. It does not severely interfere with daily functioning and might not worsen over time. To the contrary, many older adults with the condition live years with good quality of life, and face common health risks of aging like heart attack and stroke.
Levine and her colleagues found no evidence that these individuals don’t benefit just as much as their cognitively normal peers from evidence-based treatment for heart attack.
“Patients should get the treatments they would want if they were properly informed,” she concluded.
The study was published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.
