'Some of my patients think a dementia diagnosis means less than six months to live.' New study sheds light on life expectancy
MDlinx Feb 06, 2025
Industry Buzz
“Life expectancy after a dementia diagnosis is not as important as a dementia diagnosis causing patients to lose the ability to drive or care for their finances.” – Clifford Segil, DO
“Some of my patients receive a dementia diagnosis and think it means they have fewer than 6 months to live, which is often not the case.” – Irina Sklyar-Scott, MD
Find more of your peers' perspectives and insights below.
Fifty-one per cent of people who are diagnosed with dementia will still be alive 5 years later.
Brück CC, Mooldijk SS, Kuiper LM, et al. Time to nursing home admission and death in people with dementia: systematic review and meta-analysis. The BMJ. 2025;388:e080636.
Research published in The BMJ found that life expectancy for those diagnosed with dementia varied based on age at diagnosis, sex, and geographic area.
“Prognosis after a dementia diagnosis is highly dependent on personal and clinical characteristics, offering the potential for individualised prognostic information and care planning,” the study authors write.
“The average life expectancy of people with dementia at the time of diagnosis ranged from 5.7 years at age 65 to 2.2 at age 85 in men and from 8.0 to 4.5, respectively, in women. About one-third of the remaining life expectancy was lived in nursing homes, with more than half of people moving to a nursing home within five years after a dementia diagnosis.”
Managing patient expectations
Irina Skylar-Scott, MD, a cognitive and behavioural neurologist and clinical assistant professor at Stanford University, says that the research can also be helpful for clinicians.
“These studies can guide our counselling for patients and families about what to expect. Some of my patients receive a dementia diagnosis and think it means they have fewer than 6 months to live, which is often not the case. It can be helpful to use evidence-based studies to support discussions about their true prognosis,” Dr. Skylar-Scott tells MDLinx.
While an understanding of life expectancy is important, Clifford Segil DO, a neurologist at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, CA, says that factors like quality of life are also important considerations.
“A dementia diagnosis often extends patients’ lives in clinical practice, as patients with dementia have no worries due to their advanced memory loss,” Dr. Segil tells MDLinx.
Dr Skylar-Scott argues that survival rates can be highly variable and may improve in the future.
“I would say [that] 5 to 8 years reflects the average [for survival], but the range may be 0 to 20 or more years. As a field, we are actively working to prevent cognitive impairment, as well as stave off or slow down progression when impairment occurs. There are active clinical trials trying to do this, and the hope is that effective drugs can lead to improvements in survival as well.”
Median survival also depends on the country
To undertake their study, the researchers analysed data from 261 studies involving more than 5.5 million people.
They found that median survival was 1.2 to 1.4 years longer in Asia than in Europe and the United States. Those with Alzheimer’s disease had a median survival of 1.4 years longer than those with other types of dementia.
“Median survival from diagnosis appeared to be strongly dependent on age,” the authors write.
“[D]ementia reduces life expectancy by about two years for people with a diagnosis at age 85, 3-4 years with a diagnosis at age 80, and up to 13 years with a diagnosis at age 65," continue the authors
Every year, almost 10 million people globally receive a diagnosis of dementia. The study authors argue that prognosis after a dementia diagnosis is crucial for guiding expectations and making care plans.
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