Experiences Surrounding an Early-Stage Cognitive Diagnosis in Rural-Dwelling Older Adults.

The sample was small and purposively selected from people already attending a specialty research center, so it may not represent rural adults who do not seek evaluation. All participants and care partners were white, and the sample had relatively high education, limiting generalizability. Participants were highly motivated, willing to travel and undergo long evaluations, which may not be typical of rural-dwelling adults. Experiences were recalled retrospectively, and interviews did not probe pre and post visit events directly; some participants could not remember the specialty visit. The interview guide asked about the last specialty visit, but not why only some participants scheduled their own evaluation. Inclusion required a reliable care partner, adequate sensory acuity, more than 7 years of education, and capacity to consent, so people without a care partner or with lower function were not studied. One interview included an additional care partner, so dyad counts were not uniform.

Funding is listed as NIH extramural and non-U.S. government research support; authors declared no potential conflicts of interest.

Do not read these themes as evidence that specialty evaluation improves cognitive outcomes. This was a qualitative study of a small, highly motivated sample with retrospective recall.