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New research from UAB shows that patients
with mild Alzheimer’s disease (AD) have a
dramatic decline in their ability to make
financial decisions over a one year period
Newswise — New research from UAB (University
of Alabama at Birmingham) shows that
patients with mild Alzheimer’s disease (AD)
have a dramatic decline in their ability to
make financial decisions over a one year
period.
The findings, published Feb. 8 online in the American
Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, have strong
implications for caregivers and health care
providers in the areas of estate planning
and fraud prevention.
The UAB team compared 55 patients with mild
AD against 63 healthy older adults and
followed them for one year.
At
the beginning of the trial, the mild AD
group already showed a 20 percent decline in
overall financial ability compared to the
control group.
By the end of the year, the AD group had
dropped another 10 percent.
“After just one year, the mild AD group had
dropped to 70 percent of the financial
capacity demonstrated by the healthy older
adult group, a significant decline,” said
Daniel Marson, J.D., Ph.D., director of the
UAB Alzheimer’s Disease Center in the
Department of Neurology and the study’s lead
author.
Patients were assessed on a variety of
financial skills, including basic monetary
skills, checkbook management, bill payment
and understanding a bank statement.
Tasks varied from simple ones such as
identifying specific coins and currency to
complex ones such as preparing bills, checks
and envelopes for mailing.
Assessments were done using the Financial
Capacity Instrument, (FCI-9), an instrument
developed by Marson’s group. The FCI-9
measures 18 different financial tasks within
nine domains and has two overall scores.
The AD group showed substantial declines in
overall financial capacity, on eight of the
nine financial domains and on 12 of the 18
financial tasks. Of particular concern was
decline in the ability to recognize
telephone or mail fraud.
“Elder fraud is a serious problem and our
findings suggest that even patients with
mild Alzheimer’s are at significantly
increased risk for becoming victims of
fraud,” said Marson.
Overall the study found that impairment in
financial skills occurs early in AD and
progresses relatively rapidly over time, and
includes declines in basic judgment and
monetary calculation skills.
The findings underscore the importance, at
the time of diagnosis, of patients with mild
AD and their families promptly pursuing
financial planning and transfer of financial
responsibilities, Marson said.
Proactive steps by families include
finalizing trust and estate arrangements,
delegating financial decision-making powers,
planning for eventual financial incapacity,
and providing increased supervision of
existing financial activities.
This research was supported by grants from
the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and
the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH),
part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
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