Internally Peer Reviewed My dancing partner last week told me that her mother had been diagnosed with dementia. Her mother was able to live alone but had visible deterioration in her ability to cope.
Dependence leads to a poor quality of life, increased health costs, and increased deaths.
The results are melded together as if these people had all been followed for 15 years or more. Dependence measured this way has varied widely and has been unreliable. Longitudinal study involves following the same people for 15 years. It is tedious, difficult, and expensive but more reliable. We now have the first follow up of a longitudinal study of a Stockholm elderly general population.