July 2025

GERIATRICS

PLANNING FOR ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE: 4 PHENOTYPES OF OLDER ADULTS

At the 2025 Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Geriatrics Society, Amber Miller-Winder, MPH, Lee Lindquist, MD, and other researchers from Northwestern Medicine Geriatrics shared their research organizing participants into four phenotypes related to planning for Alzheimer’s disease support. Research study coordinator Raven Relerford delivered the oral presentation of the Plan Your Lifespan study.

The study surveyed 293 participants every six months for up to 30 months about various cognitive, social, functional and environmental factors. The researchers categorized the participants into four groups based on their planning behaviors and attitudes towards long-term care and home support for Alzheimer’s disease.
The Plan Your Lifespan’s Four Planning Phenotypes
People who:
  • Deny the need to plan
  • Have created plans
  • Leave all planning to others
  • Don’t plan due to internal or external limitations

​Takeaways for Daily Practice
The study’s findings emphasize that knowing what drives some older adults to plan for their futures while understanding the barriers others face is essential for initiating meaningful conversations.
This research demonstrates that aging in place is complex, influenced by emotional, financial and cultural factors that affect long-term care decisions. In the next phase of the Plan Your Lifespan project, we’ll use insights from understanding different decision-making styles to improve these crucial conversations.
​Lee Lindquist, MD  Chief of Geriatrics in the Department of Medicine and the George M. Eisenberg Research Professor of Geriatric Medicine 

Refer a Patient

Northwestern Medicine welcomes the opportunity to partner with you in caring for your patients. ​

You May Also Like