Study Links Disasters to Dementia [Consumer.Healthday.com]

Earthquakes, floods and other natural disasters may raise dementia risk for seniors forced to leave their homes, a new study suggests.

"In the aftermath of disasters, most people focus on mental health issues like PTSD," said study author Hiroyuki Hikichi, a research fellow at Harvard University's School of Public Health, in Boston.

"But our study suggests that cognitive decline is also an important issue," Hikichi said in a university news release.

Relocation to a temporary shelter after a disaster may have the unintended effect of separating people not just from their homes but from their neighbors -- and both may speed up mental decline among vulnerable people, Hikichi's team noted.

Researchers looked at nearly 3,600 survivors of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan. All were 65 and older. The rate of dementia in this group was 4.1 percent before the disaster and 11.5 percent two-and-a-half years after the tsunami.

[For more of this story go to https://consumer.healthday.com...-elderly-716105.html]

Perhaps Emergency Planners will also take this into consideration, as they formulate plans. Until Five years ago, I recorded minutes of our Local Emergency Planning Committee, and other committees-for our City Clerk's Office.

Our proximity to the flood zones of the Connecticut River (separating New Hampshire and Vermont) had emergency plans in place to address a host of "rural" and 'metropolitan' issues: from moving dairy cow herds in the river flood zones to "higher ground" areas where they could still be milked, to what hazardous materials were transported by rail, truck, and air- in this area where two Inter-state highways intersect, and Amtrak and freight trains pass, and even hospital radiological supplies are transported by air.

Rural folks tend to look out for their neighbors, especially elderly folks. I find myself wondering what "Resilience building activities" might mitigate this risk for all elderly folks-be they "rural" or "Urban"...

Study Links Disasters to Dementia [Consumer.Healthday.com]

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