Patty Takawira

it's really how is it, you know, is it poor judgment and decision-making?

Is it, you know, how common or, you know, how often is it happening?

Is it,

Is it like, oh, I kind of forgot for a second, but then I remembered or literally an inability to retrace your steps like you don't know you're confused.

You know, you get lost and you're in the car and you're just like lost and you don't know how to get back.

So I would say that those are kind of the differences.

But, you know, it's a little nuance.

So it makes sense if you're if you feel lost.

concerned.

So we track this in the behavioral risk factor surveillance system, BRFSS, as you know, Stan, there's a question about subjective cognitive decline.

So this is like people feel like they're experiencing cognitive decline.

And the really interesting thing about that is that about half of the folks who report subjective cognitive decline are between the ages of

45 and 64.

So when I first started looking into that data with Renee kidney at, at MDH, it's like, Whoa, I mean, I don't think people know this Renee.

Like, I don't think people know that it's not just happening in the 65 plus age range that people are having these symptoms, but that's when they're getting missed.

And, and only four and 10 of those

folks experiencing subjective cognitive decline had talked with a healthcare provider about it.

So now you can see like, it's really both sides that need to understand how to initiate the conversation.

So there's just so much work to do from a public health perspective, both really concerning and kind of like the opportunity is also exciting, which I think is why I've stayed in this

in this role, doing this work.