Undiagnosed dementia can be risky, especially when someone is hospitalized, Elizabeth Tracey reports

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People who have dementia frequently aren’t diagnosed, and when such a person is hospitalized they are at much higher risk for poorer outcomes. That’s the focus of research by Halima Amjad, a geriatrics and dementia expert at Johns Hopkins.

Amjad: If somebody has undiagnosed dementia meaning the healthcare system and or their families don't know what's going on or if they're diagnosed but they or their families don't know that there's a diagnosis are there bad things that happen? Because someone has cognitive changes and trouble in their daily life that unfortunately hasn't been picked up in the medical system. You know when people are older they get hospitalized pretty often what happens to someone if they have undiagnosed dementia or they're unaware of it and they end up in the hospital.   :31

Amjad notes that outcomes like recurrent hospitalization, longer lengths of stay and discharge to somewhere other than home may occur more frequently in those whose dementia isn’t diagnosed. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.