Life Is Short After Dementia Diagnosis, No Matter Your Age

A study presented at the Alzheimer's Association annual meeting in Chicago argued that age is not a determinant of how long a person will live following a dementia diagnosis, reports HealthDay News . "These findings suggest that, despite all efforts, and despite being younger and perhaps physically 'healthier' than older people, survival time in people with young-onset dementia has not improved since 2000," notes VU University Medical Center's Dr. Hanneke Rhodius-Meester. The investigators studied nearly 4,500 people with early onset dementia. Median survival time was six years, but this period varied depending on the type of dementia, with 6.4 years for frontotemporal lobe degeneration, 6.2 years for Alzheimer's disease, 5.7 years for vascular dementia, 5.1 years for dementia with Lewy bodies, and 3.6 years for rarer causes. However, survival times were similar among subjects of all ages, whether they were younger or older than 65. Earlier research suggested survival times after dementia diagnosis ranged between three and 12 years. "While these results still need to be replicated and confirmed, they do highlight the urgency of the need for better treatments and effective prevention strategies," says Rhodius-Meester.