Study highlights barriers to Alzheimer’s care in rural Georgia

National Georgians can find it difficult to gain access to medicines that can delay the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, according to a new study from the University of Georgia.

This is especially worrying because national provinces experience a considerably higher burden of the disease.

The researchers analyzed the availability of facilities that offered the IV medication Lecanemab and the accessibility of PET scans, which are used to diagnose Alzheimer’s, in all 159 provinces of Georgia.

The study showed that none of the national provinces of Georgia had a PET scanning facility. Only one had an infusion center.

Georgians in national provinces were confronted with drive times of more than an hour to reach a facility that PET scans offered. Driving times to Lecanemab infusion sites were even longer, sometimes more than three hours.

It is difficult for people to find a trained, capable doctor in Alzheimer’s disease to make a diagnosis. “

Niying Li, main author of the study and university lecturer at UGA College of Pharmacy

“Once you have received that diagnosis and are ready to start the medicine, you must be connected to an infusion center. And once you are connected to the center, you have to let a family provider go for infusions every two weeks because you cannot drive because of possible side effects of the medication.”

For many national Georgians, those barriers have care out of reach.

National provinces are confronted with a heavy burden of Alzheimer’s disease, missing resources

More than 188,000 Georgians live with Alzheimer’s disease. Hundreds of thousands of more loved ones offer unpaid care to the condition, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.

The researchers discovered that most 28 lecanemab infusion centers of the state around the Atlanta area are clustered. Only one is in a national county.

Of the six clinics for memory assessment that offer patients or refer to PET scans, there is none in the countryside.

People with the early Alzheimer’s disease can become agitated when they are removed from their normal routines. The long drive to reach the facility in combination with sitting for more than an hour to receive an infusion and then make the long journey back home is not only a hassle for these patients and their carers.

It is often impossible, Li said.

“I think this study really indicates that rural patients with Alzheimer’s disease are missing,” Li said. “They have no support.”

Shortage of care providers, medical knowledge another barrier for care

But it is not only long driving times that prevent patients from Alzheimer’s access to care.

“We also have a shortage of health workers who can make a diagnosis that may be eligible for the medicine,” Li said. “And we have a shortage of health care professionals who are familiar with the use of this medicine.”

Eighteen provinces in Georgia miss a doctor for general practitioner medicine. And those provinces are almost exclusively rural.

For Georgians in these areas, getting a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s only requires access to reliable transport and to someone who can take free time to get patients to their appointment.

Few options to treat Alzheimer’s disease

Although the drug has its disadvantages – it is exorbitantly expensive and requires extensive follow -up image formation due to potentially life -threatening side effects – Lecanemab is one of the few breakthroughs in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.

For years, the treatments of Alzheimer’s focused on relaxing symptoms. In recent years, the Food and Drug Administration approved only three medicines to postpone the progression of the disease. And one of them was pulled off the market last year.

The remaining two medicines have the potential to transform care for patients with the early Alzheimer’s disease, the researchers said. But only if patients have access to it.

Published in Alzheimer and dementiaThe Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, the study became co-author of Samruddhi Borate and Mohammed Zuber of Uga’s College of Pharmacy, Darshan Chudasama of Uga’s College of Public Health, and Stephen Correia and Lisa Renzi-Hammond. Other co-authors are Kai Zhang and Yiran Han.