Read this first
This page puts nine states side by side on four survey questions. It ranks them on one of those questions, because a page has to be ordered somehow, and it does not rank them on the other three.
Nothing on it is a diagnosis or a measure of dementia. The people counted answered questions about themselves over the telephone, and nobody examined anyone. A state figure cannot tell you anything about the person you care for.
If you are here because a parent has moved across a state line, or a sibling in another state is seeing something different from what you are seeing, the more useful page is probably the one about the doctor's appointment. This one is here so that the comparison, when it comes up, is at least an honest one.
Missouri and its neighbours mostly overlap on memory loss
Families compare notes across state lines all the time: a parent moved from Kentucky, a brother in Kansas who says it is not as bad there. The survey lets you check. What it mostly shows is how little the neighbours differ once the ranges are printed next to the numbers.
Missouri shares a border with eight states, as many as any state in the country. That makes it unusually easy for a family to be spread across two or three of them, and unusually common for one relative to insist that things are different where they live.
Sometimes they are. Mostly the survey says they are not, or not by enough to matter. Every figure on this page comes with a range, and for the question the table is sorted on, every one of Missouri's eight neighbours has a range that overlaps Missouri's. A difference that sits inside the range is not a difference the survey can vouch for.
Where the neighbours do pull apart is on a later question, about whether memory trouble is getting in the way of the household, and that column is worth a slower look. But it is not the column the table is sorted on, and the reason for that is set out before any value is read.
How the nine were chosen, and how they are ordered
The item set is Missouri plus every state that shares a land border with it: Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. That rule was fixed before any figure was looked at, and all nine are present in the 46-jurisdiction series. The table is ordered on the first question in the survey, the share of all older adults reporting memory loss, because it is the only one of the four with the whole older population as its denominator. The other three columns are printed alongside and are not ranked.
The nine, ranked on reported memory loss
| Rank | State | Reported memory loss | Interferes with chores or social life | Need help day to day | Talked to a professional |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oklahoma | 15.2% | 36.2% | 26.5% | 44.8% |
| 2 | Tennessee | 14.4% | 39.7% | 28.6% | 40.8% |
| 3 | Kansas | 13.1% | 25.7% | 23.9% | 41.0% |
| 4 | Kentucky | 12.0% | 40.5% | 37.3% | 33.9% |
| 5 | Nebraska | 11.7% | 25.2% | 22.1% | 36.3% |
| 6 | Arkansas | 11.6% | 36.2% | 34.3% | 32.8% |
| 7 | Missouri | 11.5% | 29.1% | 33.9% | 35.3% |
| 8 | Iowa | 10.9% | 30.3% | 33.7% | 38.8% |
| 9 | Illinois | 8.8% | 49.2% | 52.5% | 42.5% |
The same nine, with their ranges
This is the table that matters. Each cell is the confidence interval the CDC publishes with the estimate above it. Where two ranges overlap, the survey cannot say which state is higher.
| State | Reported memory loss | Interferes | Need help | Talked to a professional |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oklahoma | 13.3 to 17.4 | 29.2 to 43.9 | 20.5 to 33.5 | 37.6 to 52.2 |
| Tennessee | 12.7 to 16.3 | 33.1 to 46.8 | 23.1 to 34.7 | 34.4 to 47.6 |
| Kansas | 11.3 to 15.2 | 19.3 to 33.4 | 16.7 to 32.9 | 33.4 to 49.0 |
| Kentucky | 9.6 to 14.8 | 29.8 to 52.2 | 26.7 to 49.2 | 24.6 to 44.6 |
| Nebraska | 10.2 to 13.4 | 19.6 to 31.9 | 16.8 to 28.5 | 29.7 to 43.5 |
| Arkansas | 9.9 to 13.5 | 28.3 to 45.0 | 26.4 to 43.1 | 25.5 to 41.0 |
| Missouri | 10.0 to 13.3 | 22.8 to 36.2 | 27.2 to 41.4 | 28.6 to 42.5 |
| Iowa | 8.9 to 13.2 | 21.4 to 41.0 | 23.5 to 45.6 | 29.4 to 49.1 |
| Illinois | 6.5 to 11.7 | 34.8 to 63.7 | 37.5 to 67.1 | 28.8 to 57.5 |
What the overlap means
On the first question, Missouri reports 11.5 percent, which is 7 of these nine and 32 of the full 46. Oklahoma is highest among the neighbours at 15.2 and Illinois lowest at 8.8. That looks like a spread. Then look at the ranges. Missouri's runs from 10.0 to 13.3. Oklahoma's starts at exactly 13.3, touching Missouri's top edge, and Illinois's reaches up to 11.7, well inside Missouri's. Every other neighbour's range overlaps Missouri's outright.
So the plain reading is this: on how many older adults say their memory is getting worse, the survey cannot separate Missouri from any of the states around it with confidence. Across all thirty-six pairings of these nine states, only three come apart on that question, Oklahoma from Iowa and from Illinois, and Tennessee from Illinois, and none of the three involves Missouri. A relative who says it is worse or better where they live than here is, on this question, describing something the survey does not see.
The column where the neighbours do pull apart
The second column is different. On whether memory trouble interferes with chores or social life, Illinois reports 49.2 percent and Nebraska 25.2, and their ranges do not touch: Nebraska's tops out at 31.9 and Illinois's begins at 34.8. Illinois sits clear of Kansas the same way, and Tennessee, at 39.7, sits clear of Nebraska. Those three pairings are real differences in the survey's own terms. Every other pairing on that column overlaps.
Missouri, at 29.1 on that column, overlaps with all eight of its neighbours, including Illinois by a little over a point at the edges. It is in the middle of its neighbours as it is in the middle of the country, and that column has its own page with all 46 jurisdictions.
On needing help day to day, Illinois again stands apart, this time from Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Tennessee, and again not from Missouri. Missouri's 33.9 sits above Kansas and Nebraska in the estimates, but the ranges still overlap: Nebraska's reaches 28.5 and Missouri's starts at 27.2. On talking to a professional, the nine are close enough that no pair at all can be separated, and Missouri's 35.3 is a whisker from its neighbours in either direction. If the comparison across the state line is going to be had at the kitchen table, those are the honest terms for it.
What none of this settles
Whether the person you care for should be near one relative or another is not a survey question, and this page does not have a view on it. Familiar surroundings matter a great deal to a person whose memory is unreliable, and so does the presence of somebody who can come to the house on a schedule. Both of those are decisions about a household, not about a state.
The clinical question underneath all of it, what is causing the change, belongs with a doctor wherever that doctor is. For preparing that conversation, the National Institute on Aging publishes guidance for family members on taking someone to a doctor's appointment, and it reads the same in all nine states.
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About this listing. New Plan Care is a client of OwnersFirm, the publisher of this site, and this placement is paid. It sits below the tables rather than in them for a reason: the tables compare nine states on a survey, and no provider was measured, scored, ranked or placed by any number on this page. It is not ranked here and could not be. New Plan Care's service is non-medical support at home, which means routine, meals, companionship and presence, and not diagnosis or treatment. Nobody at this site is offering medical advice, and this box does not change that. Call (314) 405-0887.