A new study finds people living in rural parts of west Michigan have a high rate of under-diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment.
Researchers from Michigan State University and Corewell Health reviewed more than 1.5 million patient records.
Bin Chen is an MSU researcher. He said the study found many rural patients progressed directly to dementia and Alzheimer’s disease diagnoses without a prior diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment, also called MCI.
Typically, individuals experience MCI before developing dementia, yet the study found that patients who progressed directly to dementia without a prior MCI diagnosis — also referred to in the study as "MCI skippers" — were three times more prevalent than those identified with MCI initially.
Chen says researchers hope to develop tools, including artificial intelligence, that can help physicians identify those patients who already have MCI.
“Certainly I think it’s very good opportunity for us to use the vast tools to identify those patients who would benefit,” said Chen.
The retrospective study, which included 10 years of historical patient data, is now published in the journal Alzheimer’s and Dementia: Translational Research & Clinical Interventions and is the first large-scale analysis of its kind representing most of the population of West Michigan.
