A study reveals the association of "Alzheimer's" with credit cards and loans

A recent medical study, published by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), revealed that frequently forgetting to pay bills or pay debts related to credit cards or loan installments is an early sign of the possibility of developing Alzheimer's disease.

The study found that patterns of non-payment of credit card and loan payments could indicate dementia and Alzheimer's, which are related to adverse financial events, beginning years before a clinical diagnosis.

According to the journal, the study authors studied the credit data and payment history of about 81,000 patients in the Medicare program, over a 20-year period, and found that those with Alzheimer's disease and dementia were more likely to default on payment early, before they were officially diagnosed with the disease about 6 years ago. . The researchers said that the loss of payment was not associated with any other medical condition, which is unique to dementia, as Lauren Hirsch Nicholas, an Alzheimer's disease researcher, indicated that dementia was the only medical condition in which consistent financial symptoms were observed, especially the long period of Deterioration of results prior to clinical diagnosis. She pointed out that the failure to pay the debts led to placing card holders in high-risk credit scores, which is what many patients faced between two and 6 years ago, before they were diagnosed with the disease.