Early warning sign of dementia may be visible through your bank account, study finds
The study looked into the less-known early symptom
Callum Jones
A study has found an early warning sign of dementia may be present in your bank account in the form of out-of-character payments and multiple bank transfers.
It's estimated that 7.2 million Americans live with Alzheimer’s, with a staggering one in nine people aged 65 and over having the disease.
Symptoms of Alzheimer's or dementia include forgetfulness, while other forms of the disease can cause hallucinations, stiffness, and anxiety. There are some other symptoms that are less talked about however, including actions involving money.
Experts over at the New York Federal Reserve looked into US credit reporting and Medicare data and found an individual's average credit score decreases and arrears rises in the five years before a dementia diagnosis.
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The researchers wrote in their findings: "The harmful financial effects of undiagnosed memory disorders exacerbate the already substantial financial pressure households face upon diagnosis.
"Beyond susceptibility to payment delinquency, early stage [Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders] may affect new account openings and debt accumulation, credit utilization, and/or credit mix."
Marcey Tidwell is not at all surprised by these findings after his mother was diagnosed with dementia in 2020.
As per CNN, Tidwell said his mother kept all her bills in order until he noticed differences in her behaviour around 2015, particularly around a previously organised record of written checks and deposits that had got a bit out of hand.
"There was a bunch of stuff scratched out and she was obsessively adding and re-adding — she knew things weren’t all they could be. Later on, I saw that she took out large amounts of her savings, more than she needed for groceries," Tidwell explained.
Last year, a study led by the by Professor John Gathergood from the University of Nottingham in the UK and David Leake of the Lloyds Banking Group found everyday financial behaviours can signal early signs of cognitive decline.
It looked into individuals who were registered for power of attorney with a group without any reported capacity loss.
Professor Gathergood said: "These patterns provide the first large-scale evidence that behavioural data held by financial institutions can reveal the early emergence of cognitive decline.
"It is a powerful demonstration of how anonymized banking data can be used responsibly to protect the most vulnerable members of society.”
While there is no cure for dementia, early detection is crucial, which will hopefully increase thanks to these studies, as well as a 2020 study from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Lead author of the study said: "Earlier screening and detection, combined with information about the risk of irreversible financial events, like foreclosure and repossession, are important to protect the financial well-being of the patient and their families."