According to a study from the Alzheimer’s Society, over 62% of people believe that a dementia diagnosis would mean that “their life is over.” Despite the fact that early intervention is an important factor in cognitive care, fear of dementia keeps patients from talking to their doctors about their cognition.
According to the Alzheimer's Association, 13.2% of people age 75 to 84, and 33.4% of people age 85 or older have Alzheimer’s dementia. When it comes to supporting these senior patients, it's critical for healthcare providers to be able to distinguish between symptoms of cognitive impairment versus normal aging.
Measuring cognitive function with scientifically-backed cognitive screens can provide essential data and give healthcare providers a starting point for educating senior patients about preventing and managing cognitive decline in their 80s—which can start with routine testing and encouraging good brain health practices in their 60s and 70s.
In this article, we'll discuss the prevalence of dementia among seniors, as well as strategies and tools that healthcare providers can use to help discuss cognitive decline and introduce practices for better brain health.
Under Medicare, an annual wellness visit is a requirement for patients over 65, and a great opportunity to implement routine cognitive testing. With assessment tools that can generate reports in minutes, providers have more time to get to know patients and understand their unique needs.
Here are our tools and tips for measuring patient cognition, building collaborative treatment plans, and keeping up with preventative care:
Some of the most common cognitive tests for dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, and mild cognitive impairment include:
Many cognitive screeners—including the MMSE, Mini-Cog, MoCA, and SLUMS—are administered by pen and paper. While they provide quick results, they’re often limited in how much data they can provide about a patient’s ability to perform simple tasks.
Should the test results reveal signs of cognitive decline, providers may have the patients take blood tests, get brain imaging, or go in for neurological testing. Once a diagnosis is made, measurement-based care helps track how patients’ cognitive ability changes over time.
If a patient is displaying signs of mild cognitive impairment or progressing dementia, it may be time to set up a cognitive care plan. This plan helps give patients better quality treatment while also taking the needs and capabilities of caregivers into account.
For about 75% of dementia parents in the United States, unpaid family members are the primary caregivers, with 60% of that work belonging to wives, daughters, daughters-in-law, granddaughters, and other female relatives (Brodaty and Donkin, 2009). In order to avoid caregiver burnout, understanding caregivers’ work schedules, health needs, and emotional state helps doctors determine which treatment plans are realistic.
Along with this, in the U.S. nearly 20% of caregivers are age 65+ themselves (National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP, 2020). When patients are experiencing cognitive decline in their 80s, it’s likely that their spouses or aging children will be looking after them, possibly while struggling with their own cognitive impairment.
While there is no 100% guaranteed way to prevent dementia, there are many lifestyle strategies that can reduce the risk factors, including:
As patients start getting older, and especially if they’re showing signs of cognitive impairment, creating an advance care plan can identify lifestyle factors to slow decline. Even for patients who cannot fully prevent cognitive decline, this gives them an opportunity to advocate for their wishes while it’s still possible.
Delivering cognitive healthcare to older adults comes with some unique considerations for providing an accessible patient experience:
Misunderstandings about the symptoms of normal aging versus cognitive decline often keep patients from talking to their doctors about their cognitive health. In one study, 37% of people said they would put off talking to their primary doctor about memory problems because they assumed that dementia was a normal part of aging (Alzheimer’s Society).
Cognitive assessments can objectively assess if a patient is experiencing cognitive impairment. However, there are a few immediate differences between symptoms of dementia and normal aging.
According to the World Health Organization, almost 40% of people will experience some sort of memory loss after the age of 65 (Alzheimer Society). Normal age-related memory problems shouldn’t dramatically interfere with peoples’ ability to live their daily lives. Along with this, they shouldn’t get in the way of problem-solving or the ability to pick up new skills.
However, while memory problems are often seen as a normal part of aging, there are some “superagers” whose brain structures in their 60s–80s are anatomically comparable to those of young adults (Sun et al., 2016).
This study’s researchers believe that consistent physical activity and embracing challenging mental activities—such as learning an instrument, trying out new technology, or teaching skills to others—are key to becoming a superager (Harvard Health Publishing, 2017). Encouraging aging patients to keep their minds active may help reduce the likelihood of cognitive decline in their 80s.
Mild cognitive impairment can resemble the normal signs of aging, but the decline is severe enough to be noticeable and measurable. If symptoms begin to affect the patient or become noticed by others, but are not interfering with daily activities, they might be dealing with MCI.
An estimated 10–15% of people with MCI develop dementia each year, which makes catching symptoms early all the more important (Alzheimer’s Association). Sensitive, scientifically-backed cognitive screens are key to catching the early stages of cognitive impairment.
Not all MCI progresses to dementia, so it is important to identify potential temporary and reversible causes, such as certain nutritional deficiencies (Silva et al., 2013). Cognitive screeners, alongside physical biomarkers, can give clinicians a full look at the source of cognitive impairment and help identify appropriate treatment plans.
Dementia is the escalation of cognitive impairment symptoms to the point where they significantly impact a patient’s capacity to safely carry out their instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs). While patients with MCI might forget they’ve already told a story a couple of times, patients with dementia might forget information such as what year it is.
Along with memory loss, dementia impacts a patient’s behavior, mood, language abilities, and sense of judgment (National Institute on Aging). Challenges with executive function can also be an early sign of dementia, and plays a part in struggles with working memory (Stopford, 2010).
The Alzheimer’s Society identifies several different types of dementia, the most common of which include:
Because there is currently no way to fully reverse dementia, symptoms will often become worse for patients as they get older. For example, patients with cognitive decline in their 80s may exhibit more extreme symptoms than patients in their 70s. Comparing patients to age-specific normative data can help distinguish normal aging from MCI or dementia, providing crucial information for clinicians and caregivers to take the appropriate next steps.
The Creyos Dementia Protocol includes a sensitive cognitive screener, a detailed assessment, and care planning tools to assist in the identification and management of MCI or dementia. Alongside cognitive tasks to objectively identify deficits, questionnaires, including the IQCODE, IADL, PHQ-9, GAD-7, give a more complete look at patients’ behavioral health and help identify comorbidities.
Creyos cognitive tasks measure cognitive impairment across multiple domains to support diagnostic standards required by the DSM-5. Advanced tracking features monitor patients’ cognitive function over time, and produce reports that are easy for patients and providers to understand—and which integrate into patients’ electronic health records.
As of 2024, Creyos has added new accessibility features that make it appropriate for assessing patients in the 80+ age range who may be dealing with physical challenges. Accessibility features include:
For researchers, Creyos has become a trusted measurement tool in cognitive health studies. For example, the Maintain Your Brain study used Creyos cognitive tasks as primary outcome measures in studying the use of online interventions in preventing cognitive decline. And in positive news, the intervention group appears to have improved significantly on cognitive measures after the three years of personalized coaching to address dementia risk factors (Brodaty et al., 2025).
Contact Creyos today to learn about how our cognitive tasks can efficiently and effectively measure your patients’ brain health.
Here are a few frequently asked questions from patients about cognitive impairment:
According to the Alzheimer’s Association, some of the earliest signs of cognitive decline include:
Rapid decline can come from many sources. Research in The Lancet identified 14 modifiable risk factors that contribute to cognitive decline, as well as non-modifiable risk factors (e.g. genetics).
A common contributor is loneliness and social isolation (National Institute on Aging, 2019). The death of a partner, a loss of mobility, and lack of access to transportation are some of the most common sources of loneliness. In fact, driving cessation was associated with a 51% decrease in a patients’ social network when they lacked access to other forms of transportation (Chihuri et. al, 2016).
Practicing whole person care gives providers a full look at individual patients, and can identify when arranging transportation or connecting patients with social groups can improve health outcomes.
Typically, women first begin experiencing any cognitive impairment and dementia at 73 and 83 years, respectively; for men, those numbers are closer to 70 and 79 years (Hale et al., 2020).
Experiencing some form of cognitive decline is common in a patient’s 80s, but there are many lifestyle and risk factors that play into how it impacts people on an individual level.
Women have a 71% risk and men have a 61% risk of experiencing any cognitive impairment in their lifetimes (Hale et al., 2020). Cognition problems are a normal part of aging, but the impact they have on patients’ daily lives are indicators of whether they are a sign of mild or severe cognitive decline. Objective cognitive testing can compare a patient’s performance to other people in the same age group, providing evidence of whether or not cognition is within a normal range for their age.
For patients in their 80s, it is normal to see some signs of memory loss and reduced cognitive function. By keeping up with routine cognitive assessments, providers can identify when these problems are signs of a more serious condition, and set up the treatment plans that will give them the best quality of life as they continue to age.
Connect with us today to learn about how Creyos’ scientifically-backed cognitive assessment tools can be incorporated into your medical practice.
Updated: March 10, 2025
Avi Meehan is an author, editor, and SEO copywriter based in Ontario, Canada. They write about a wide range of topics including nonprofit and events management, cognition and mental health, and more. Through their legacy memoir writing service, Recollections, they help aging individuals explore and document their life stories.
Mike Battista specializes in brain health, cognition, and neuropsychological testing. He received his PhD in personality and measurement psychology at Western University in 2010 and has been doing fun and useful stuff in the intersection between science and technology ever since.