We want to see trend in Cognitive Impairment issues and the number of reports of such instances in each state in the U.S. Cognitive Decline is a natural obvious outcome of aging of humans, as we get older and older our brain is aging as well which develops decline in cognitive capacity. If we were to draw the pattern of a potential Alzheimer case, severe cognitive decline may result in Mild Cognitive Impairment which is the stage before a potential Alzheimer's disease. Thus if a patient shows symptoms of cognitive decline, this can be treated and prevented from getting worse.
"Cognitive decline does not affect all individuals equally; clear associations exist between the rate and severity of cognitive decline and a variety of factors, including oxidative stress and free radical damage, chronic low-level inflammation, declining hormone levels, endothelial dysfunction, excess body weight, suboptimal nutrition, lifestyle, social network, other medical conditions, and various biomarkers. Fortunately, many of these factors are modifiable to a significant extent, and proactive lifestyle changes, cognitive training, and nutritional interventions have been shown to decrease the rate of intellectual decay and potentially reverse age-related cognitive decline."
Roughly process of a patient ending up with dementia can be mapped as:
Healthy Brain >> Symptoms (Trouble remembering, learning new things) >> Mild Cognitive Impairment >> Dementia
Dementia is a general term used to describe symptoms characterized by the loss of cognitive function. Alzheimer’s is the most common cause of dementia, accounting for 60−80% of dementia cases. Other types include vascular dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies, and frontotemporal dementia. Alzheimer’s disease is a chronic condition that progressively damages and eventually destroys brain cells. Although a patient with Alzheimer's can live up to 20 years, on average, this can be four to eight years after diagnosis.
- Is it a good problem to work on? Yes, according to the reports Medical expenses are very much higher than other diseases especially in elderly. According to the Alzheimer's Disease org website, early diagnosis of the disease could save up to $ 7.9 trillion in medical and care costs. Moreover, the Alzheimer's Association and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has put effort into making a road map to deal with all sorts of dementia and to support people having dementia. Thus, this area of study needs continued attention and research to address both prevention and early diagnosis process of dementia.
This data collected by The_Behavioral_Risk_Factor_Surveillance_SystemBRFSS contains results of health related telephone surveys to monitor health-related risk behaviors, chronic health conditions, and use of preventive services of the US residents. In order to conduct the BRFSS, states obtain samples of telephone numbers from CDC.
Household sampling requires interviewers to collect information on the number of adults living within a residence and then select
randomly from all eligible adults. Cellular telephone respondents are weighted as single adult households.
The Northeast Region includes Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
The Midwest Region includes Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota.
The Southern Region includes Alabama, Arkansas, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia.
The Western Region includes Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.
2015 Summary Data Quality Report, 2016 Summary Data Quality Report
Note: This project is prepared for part of Data Science Immersive Bootcamp. Author do not have any medical background, so the wording may have mistakes in terms of medical terms.