Another Sign That Mild Cognitive Impairment Is Progressing to Alzheimer’s

I recently posted a summary of a study about the progression of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to Alzheimer’s.  Now there’s another sign that spouses and relatives can watch for – impaired ability to manage finances.  It often happens that family finances are managed by the older spouse, so that this may be a signal (and important) sign that there’s deterioration beyond slight forgetfulness.  A report of the study in question is in the journal Neurology.

University of Alabama researchers followed 87 patients with MCI and 76 cognitive healthy adults over one year.  During this period 25 of the MCI patients converted to Alzheimer’s disease status, based on their Mini-Mental State Exam and Clinical Dementia Rating scores.  All the participants were administered the Financial Capacity instrument (FCI) at baseline and one year later.

At baseline, the healthy controls did better then the subjects with MCI on almost all the FCI items.  Moreover, the MCI converters (i.e. those that progressed to Alzheimer’s within the year) had baseline FCI scores lower than non-converters.  And after one year, MCI converters had significantly greater declines in FCI scores than the controls and the non-converters. 

These results show that declining financial skills are detectable in patients with MCI in the year before their conversion to Alzheimer’s.  The researchers suggest that family members might want to oversee their senior’s use of the checkbook, whether bills are unpaid or paid twice, and so on.  Loss of such skills may be a warning sign of impending deterioration towards dementia, and appropriate steps must be taken to help the patient manage his/her finances.