(NewsNation) — Falling behind on paying your bills may be an indicator of early dementia development, a new study discovered.
Economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York partnered with medical experts at Georgetown University to analyze data from Equifax on how people’s borrowing behavior changes in the years before and after an Alzheimer’s or dementia diagnosis, according to The New York Times.
Researchers aimed to discover the consequences that memory disorders could have on a person’s financial outcome without a proper diagnosis.
The study, “The Financial Consequences of Undiagnosed Memory Disorders,” found that those who developed dementia had credit scores that fell sharply long before their diagnosis. Researchers also found that a year before diagnosis, people were 17.2% more likely to be late on mortgage payments and 34.3% more likely to pay credit card bills late.
Results of the study revealed that those diagnosed with dementia started to fall behind on their financial debt five years before their diagnosis.
“The results are striking in both their clarity and their consistency,” Carole Roan Gresenz, a Georgetown University economist who was one of the study’s authors, said.