More Than 7 Million Americans Unaware They Have Mild Cognitive Impairment

More than 7 million Medicare beneficiaries aged 65 years and older are likely living with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), but are undiagnosed. Based on an analysis of data for 40 million Medicare beneficiaries, at predicted MCI prevalence rates, 8 million beneficiaries likely have MCI based on their demographic profiles, but only 0.6 million, fewer than 8%, had been diagnosed.

Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries had lower estimated detection rates (0.056) than their Medicare-only counterparts (0.085) for MCI. The detection rate for MCI was highest for non-Hispanic White beneficiaries (0.098), compared to 0.039 for Black . . .