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Patients with dementia and their caregivers often seek prognostic information to guide expectations and care planning, but current estimates regarding survival and functional independence vary widely. Researchers conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of 261 longitudinal studies of survival or nursing home admission in 5 million people who were followed for at least 1 year after receiving dementia diagnoses.
Findings were as follows:
Median survival after diagnosis was 4.8 years.
Among women, median survival after diagnosis was 8.9 years at age 60 and 4.5 years at age 85; among men, it was 6.5 and 2.2 years, respectively.
Losses in life expectancy were much greater after receiving a diagnosis at a younger age (13 years' loss at age 65 …