Cognitive decline can be missed by long-term-care screens

A Dutch study found that 42% of cognitively impaired older adults living in the community used no formal or informal long-term care. That is not evidence they were denied care: the authors say many may manage on their own, and reported unmet need is low in the Netherlands. The useful warning is that cognition predicted care use beyond physical and functional limitations, so a program that asks mainly whether someone can bathe, dress or move around may miss a different kind of need.