Findings from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Broaden Understanding of Dementia (Self-funded Personal Care Is Common And Costly For People With Dementia Across The Income Spectrum): Neurodegenerative Diseases and Conditions – Dementia

2025 JAN 22 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Researchers detail new data in dementia. According to news reporting originating from New York City, United States, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “Abstract: remain in the community; those without Medicaid coverage or long-term care insurance must self-fund this care (i.e., pay for privately or out-of-pocket).”

Our news reporters obtained a quote from the research from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai: “Using data from the Health and Retirement Study (2002-2018), we identified the prevalence and financial burden of self-funded paid care among community-dwelling people 65 who received help with 1 activity of daily living (n=4666). Dementia status, receipt of paid care, and financial information (income, cost of self-funded paid care) were determined by survey responses. One-quarter of PLWD (versus 14% without dementia) used self-funded care. Among PLWD, the probability of self-funding care increased with income, but was significant for all income groups: 15%, 23%, 32%, and 48% of those with incomes 100%, 100-200%, 200-400%, and 400 of the federal poverty level respectively self-funded paid care. The amount and cost of this self-funded care was high, particularly for PLWD: 45% of PLWD (versus 22% without dementia) received 40 hours/week of self-funded care and nearly half spent $1000/month self-funding paid care.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “The median PLWD that self-funded care spent 45% of their monthly income on self-funded care; in the lowest-income group, the median PLWD spent nearly 75% of their monthly income on self-funded paid care. Given self-funded paid care is common and costly throughout the income spectrum, programs and policies aimed at easing the financial burden of self-funded paid care (e.g., expanded access to Medicaid home and community-based services) are essential, particularly for low-income individuals and families.”

For more information on this research see: Self-funded Personal Care Is Common And Costly For People With Dementia Across The Income Spectrum. Innovation in Aging, 2024,8(Supplement_1). (Innovation in Aging - https://academic.oup.com/innovateage). The publisher for Innovation in Aging is Oxford University Press (OUP).

A free version of this journal article is available at https://doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igae098.4304.

Our news journalists report that more information may be obtained by contacting Jennifer Reckrey, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, United States. Additional authors for this research include Karen Shen, Yang Yang.

(Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world.)