this post was submitted on 22 Dec 2024
851 points (98.3% liked)
Not The Onion
12558 readers
340 users here now
Welcome
We're not The Onion! Not affiliated with them in any way! Not operated by them in any way! All the news here is real!
The Rules
Posts must be:
- Links to news stories from...
- ...credible sources, with...
- ...their original headlines, that...
- ...would make people who see the headline think, “That has got to be a story from The Onion, America’s Finest News Source.”
Comments must abide by the server rules for Lemmy.world and generally abstain from trollish, bigoted, or otherwise disruptive behavior that makes this community less fun for everyone.
And that’s basically it!
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
She's only 81, which is kind of young to be suffering that level of dementia. She has been diagnosed with Covid at least once. I wonder if that is related.
81 is current average US female life expectancy. Where would you suggest people 'get old'?
we were talking about dementia, not "getting old". 81y life expectancy means if you look at the cohort of females born 81 years ago, about half of them will have already died, heart disease being the biggest cause. The relevant question is how many of them (both the dead and living ones) will have had bad enough dementia to have needed to be in a care home for it specifically? I don't mean for mild forgetfulness, occasional senior moments, etc.
81y (actually 80y per 2021 table, https://www.ssa.gov/oact/STATS/table4c6.html ) is the life expectancy at birth. For a 80yo US female, life expectancy from the same table is 9.38y. So the ones who are still alive at 80 still have some "gas in the tank". My mom is up there in age and she needs a lot of assistance getting around etc, but it's mostly physical issues.
She is in a "adult community" (i.e. apt. complex for old folks) and I spend a lot of time there seeing her. I see tons of over-80's there. A few really do have serious dementia, but most are at other levels of independence with many rolling around in wheelchairs while still mentally present. Dementia care is a different thing and it's not that common for someone who is "only" 81 to need it.
My mom at 81 was still mentally quite sharp. She's slowed down since then but it's mostly mobility and sleeping a lot. President Biden seems to have some dementia issues but again, they aren't severe enough that he needs to be in a care home for it.
See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dementia_caregiving
Risk increase for vascular dementia is 65.
My dad died of dementia when he was 83. He was in a nursing home for a year before he died.
It was before COVID.
I'm sad to hear that. Yes it happens but it's not really common from what I can tell. Currently theory about Alzheimer's is that it is also caused by sustaining viral infections earlier in life.
Alzheimer's is not the only form of dementia. My father did not have Alzheimer's, he had frontotemperal dementia.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/frontotemporal-dementia/symptoms-causes/syc-20354737
This can happen to anyone.