New Study Links Natural Disaster Stress, Cognitive Decline

Senior Housing News December 5, 2024
Austin Montgomery

A recent study found that incidents of natural disasters could negatively affect older adults and potentially lead to increased risk of dementia.

The study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) followed older adults who survived the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami to see how their cognition and memory abilities changed over an 11-year period.

Prior to the disaster, all participants had healthy cognition function and researchers found three distinct patterns of cognitive decline following the natural disaster. A total of 58.9% of older adults in the study reported little to no change in cognitive function while 27.2% reported gradual decline over time and 13.9% of older adults in the study experienced high and...

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