Health Affairs January 8, 2026
In October, Caring—an organization supporting caregivers of people with dementia—released its rankings of the most dementia-friendly states. Such reports are issued occasionally by various entities, and each uses its own definition of “dementia friendliness.” Caring’s rankings measure dementia’s prevalence within a state’s aging population, how many Alzheimer’s disease-related deaths occurred in the past five years, and how many memory care units a state has to place end-stage Alzheimer’s disease patients. In other words, the rankings capture the burden of disease and the availability of late-stage care—not the policies that determine whether people with dementia can access early detection, new treatments, or community services. As such, the rankings raise a bigger question: Is this definition of “dementia-friendliness” in step with the...
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