Weight Loss In Elderly With Dementia

A further ancova showed no significant change in the rate of decline in weight loss for the factors of age gender severity of intellectual disability and.

Weight loss in elderly with dementia. Weight loss may occur despite the person with advanced dementia being given all the food they want. This includes difficulties in eating and appetite changes which often result in unintended weight loss. In this community based elderly african american cohort with up to 12 years of follow up it was found that participants with incident dementia or mci had accelerated weight loss that was significantly different from weight loss of participants with normal cognition from as early as 6 years before diagnosis.

People in the later stages of dementia may experience loss of appetite among other symptoms. A journal of the alzheimer s association unplanned weight loss is strongly correlated with dementia severity. Preventing weight loss in people with dementia.

People will experience severe weight loss. Many people with dementia lose weight in the later stages. It is quite normal to feel this way.

Accurate evaluation is essential however because this problem is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Unintentional weight loss in the elderly patient can be difficult to evaluate. Eating and drinking becomes more difficult as dementia progresses.

10 2005 losing weight late in life may indicate that the brain is inching toward dementia a long term study shows that elderly men with dementia lost nearly 10 of their body weight a few. Assessment for depression and dementia is also vital because both have been shown to contribute to unintentional weight loss in older adults 1 the two question patient health questionnaire. Weight loss can affect the immune system and make it harder for the person to.

Watching someone with advanced dementia lose weight despite being fed enough food can be frightening. There are many factors in dementia which can result in unintentional weight loss including reduced appetite difficulty swallowing forgetting and or refusing to eat difficulty using utensils behavioural issues and poor food safety practices.