Spanish Speakers Less Likely to Receive Timely Diagnosis of Mild Cognitive Impairment

Spanish-speaking adults may be less likely to receive a timely diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment compared with their English-speaking peers, suggests astudy in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.Jason A. Silva-Rudberg, M.D., of Yale University School of Medicine and colleagues analyzed data from the electronic medical records of 12,080 English- or Spanish-speaking patients who received an initial diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment or dementia between July 2017 and June 2019 when seeking care at the largest health system in Connecticut. Overall, 11,494 patients spoke English and 586 spoke Spanish. An initial diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment was classified as “timely,” and an initial diagnosis of dementia was considered “delayed.” The researchers also assessed the comprehensiveness of the evaluations that the patients received based on the presence of laboratory studies, neuroimaging, specialist evaluation, and advanced diagnostics six months bef ore or after diagnosis.During the study period, 3,096 patients were diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment, and 8,984 patients were diagnosed with dementia. At baseline, the mean age was 74.5 years for patients with mild cognitive impairment and 80.5 for patients with dementia.Spanish speakers were 45% less likely to receive a timely diagnosis when compared with English speakers after adjusting for covariates such as sex, age, neighborhood disadvantage, ethnicity, and medical comorbidities. Despite be...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry dementia diagnoses English speakers mild cognitive impairment Spanish speakers Source Type: research