A recent study has found that age, sex, heart health, and daily functioning can all help predict how quickly people with Alzheimer’s disease will experience memory and thinking decline over a two-year period.
The study also found that this decline places a growing burden on caregivers—highlighting the need to include caregiver support in Alzheimer’s treatment plans.
The study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, followed 500 patients in Austria who were diagnosed with either probable or possible Alzheimer’s disease.
Over the course of two years, researchers monitored several key areas: how well the patients could think and remember (called cognitive function), how independently they could carry out daily tasks, whether they showed signs of depression or other mental health issues, and the level of stress or “load” on their caregivers.
All of the patients showed a decline in cognitive function during the study. As their memory and thinking worsened, they needed more help from others in their daily lives, and their caregivers experienced more stress and responsibility.
The researchers found that several factors predicted how much a person’s memory would decline. These included older age, being female, having trouble with everyday tasks, and symptoms of depression.
People who had a history of atrial fibrillation—a common heart rhythm problem where the heart beats irregularly—also had faster and more severe cognitive decline.
The most important finding was that these same factors also predicted how much extra work caregivers had to take on. In other words, the faster a person’s memory and thinking declined, the more they relied on caregivers—and the more those caregivers felt the strain.
While this study had some limits—such as a high dropout rate and not including lifestyle habits like exercise, smoking, or alcohol use—it still offers helpful clues.
It suggests that by paying attention to a combination of a person’s age, sex, heart health, and ability to manage daily tasks, doctors might be able to better predict who is most at risk for faster memory loss.
The researchers say that doctors should focus not just on treating the patient, but also on supporting the caregiver. They suggest that care plans for Alzheimer’s disease should include both the person with the condition and the caregiver who helps them every day.
For example, a person with depression or atrial fibrillation might need extra support early on, both to slow down memory loss and to reduce the burden on their caregiver.
Lead authors Dr. Liane Kaufmann and Dr. Josef Marksteiner stress that some of these risk factors, such as depression and atrial fibrillation, may be treatable. Helping patients manage these issues could potentially slow down their cognitive decline and reduce the emotional toll on their caregivers.
This study helps confirm what many families already know from experience: Alzheimer’s affects more than just memory—it impacts day-to-day life and everyone involved in caregiving. Future treatment and support plans must take both the patient and the caregiver into account to provide the best care possible.
If you care about Alzheimer’s, please read studies about Vitamin D deficiency linked to Alzheimer’s, vascular dementia, and Oral cannabis extract may help reduce Alzheimer’s symptoms.
For more information about brain health, please see recent studies about Vitamin B9 deficiency linked to higher dementia risk, and results showing flavonoid-rich foods could improve survival in Parkinson’s disease.
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