Characterizing financial risk from out-of-pocket expenditures across dementia stages.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Older adults with dementia incur considerable out-of-pocket (OOP) health care expenses, but it is unclear how their financial burden differs by dementia stage.

Methods

We identified 2939 respondents aged ≥65 with dementia in the 2018 Health and Retirement Study, representing 9.8 million individuals on weighted analysis. We grouped respondents into four severity stages and examined their OOP expenditures, prevalence of financial risk (i.e., catastrophic or impoverishing levels of health care spending), and factors associated with financial risk.

Results

Individuals with severe dementia had significantly higher OOP costs, with 21% experiencing catastrophic expenditures and 12% falling below poverty thresholds due to these costs. Regression analyses indicate

SUBMITTER: Synnott PG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12434702 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature