Problems handling money can precede Alzheimer’s

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For people with mild signs of dementia, problems with managing money may be a clue that memory problems are developing into Alzheimer’s disease, according to a study published today in the journal Neurology. The study found that tasks people have performed for their entire adult lives, such as managing a checking account, often become too complicated in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. The study involved 76 people with no memory problems and 87 older people with mild problems described as mild cognitive impairment. The participants were given a money management test at the beginning of the study and again one year later. The test included counting coins, making grocery purchases, understanding and using a checkbook, understanding and using a bank statement, preparing bills for mailing and detecting financial fraud situations.

After one year, 25 of the 87 people with mild cognitive impairment had developed Alzheimer’s disease-type dementia. The people with no memory problems and those with mild cognitive impairment who did not develop dementia maintained the same test scores one year later. But the people who had developed dementia scored lower on the initial test and dropped by 9% on their scores for checkbook management skills one year later. These participants, for example, wrote out the check correctly but failed to calculate the balance after making the transaction.

Changes in money management skills are detectable, and caregivers and doctors should watch older people with mild cognitive impairment for signs of problems in this area, said the authors of the study, from the University of Alabama, Birmingham.

‘Caregivers should consider overseeing a person’s checking transactions, contacting the person’s bank to find money issues such as bills being paid twice, or become cosigners on the checking account so that both signatures are required for checks written above a certain amount. Online banking and bill payment services are also good options,’ the lead author of the study, Daniel Marson, said in a news release.

The number of people with dementia is expected to reach 35 million worldwide next year, according to a report released today from Alzheimer’s Disease International in London. The figures are higher than a 2005 estimate published in 2005 in the Lancet. But the new data better reflect dementia rates in Western Europe, South Asia and Latin America. According to the report, dementia prevalence will nearly double every 20 years, to 65.7 million in 2020.

-- Shari Roan