Worries about dementia: How hospitalization affects the elderly
Monday, December 17, 2012 - 10:01
in Health & Medicine
Older people often worry about dementia and while some risks are known, for example alcoholism or stroke, the effects of illness are less clear. New research looks at illness requiring hospitalization and treatment in the intensive care unit (ICU) and finds that infection or severe sepsis, neurological dysfunction, such as delirium, or acute dialysis are all independently associated with an increased risk of a subsequent diagnosis of dementia.