LOS ANGELES: Individuals who have agreed to be screened for dementia by their primary care physicians and who turn out to have a positive result are more likely to refuse additional diagnostic assessment if they live alone, a new study suggests.
This refusal is due to many reasons, including the individual’s belief that there is a stigma associated with having cognitive impairment.
This is the first study to examine the relationship between older primary care patients’ attitudes about dementia screening and their behaviour regarding cognitive evaluations following a positive dementia screening test.
Cognitive impairment is one of the most under-recognised syndromes pervasive in older adults.