Long before people develop dementia, they often begin falling behind on mortgage payments, credit card bills and other financial obligations, new research shows. What they found was striking: Credit scores among people who later develop dementia begin falling sharply long before their disease is formally identified. The issues start even earlier: The study finds evidence of people falling behind on their debts five years before diagnosis. “The results are striking in both their clarity and their consistency,” said Carole Roan Gresenz, a Georgetown University economist who was one of the study’s authors. Credit scores and delinquencies, she said, “consistently worsen over time as diagnosis approaches, and so it literally mirrors the changes in cognitive decline that we’re observing.”

---

Persons: Long, ”, Carole Roan Gresenz, “ Organizations: Federal Reserve Bank of New, Georgetown University Locations: Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Equifax