Dementia Patients Less Likely To Receive Home Health, Hospice

Bruce Willis’s dementia news and the struggle the family had diagnosing it is a familiar story for many families who struggle to diagnose the condition and then figure out how to manage it. In the U.S., there is a pattern of uncertainty about the condition, which often means families are less comfortable agreeing to palliative care or hospice early enough.

A recent study proves this out. People with dementia receive less home health and hospice care in their final months compared to those without the disease, according to non-profit RTI International.

This is interesting because people with dementia typically function similarly to others with other terminal illnesses before their death so researchers are trying to guess why.

Dementia was associated with only a 12.5% likelihood of hospice care in the person’s final three months compared to 17.3% for those without dementia.

People with dementia have the same predicted average activities of daily living (ADL) score at 17 months before death compared to those without dementia. Findings suggest that people with dementia may receive less home-based care because of difficulty determining when they are within six months of death, which is a requirement to receive hospice care for end of life.

Dementia typically runs a longer course of illness as well compared to other terminal illnesses, making it more difficult to decipher when the final end of life care is needed.