Finance management skills deteriorate early on in dementia, and can influence the ability to maintain control over personal affairs. The aim of this study was to assess the contributions of different types of cognition and motor functioning to finance management.

Cross-sectional analysis using secondary data.

Community living.

Baseline data from the Uniform Data Set from the National Alzheimer's Coordinating Centers were obtained and extracted up until December 2016.

Measures on everyday functioning (Functional Assessment Questionnaire) and cognition (memory, executive functioning, and language), the Clinical Dementia Rating scale, and questions on Parkinsonian motor symptoms (gait disturbance, falls, tremors, and slowness) were included. Data were analyzed using bivariate correlation and linear regression analyses.

A total of 9,383 participants were included in the analysis (Alzheimers disease (AD) = 8,201; behavioral variant fronto-temporal dementia (bvFTD) = 796; Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB) = 386). Cognition and motor functioning varied significantly across AD, bvFTD, and DLB, with poorer motor functioning and poorer finance management skills in DLB than in AD and bvFTD. In the regression models, slowness, verbal fluency, executive functioning, and language, followed by age, gender, and diagnosis accounted for 13.8% of the variation in managing bills, and for 11.4% of the variation in managing taxes.

Maintaining finance management abilities for as long as possible is important for people with dementia, to avoid potential financial exploitation. Findings from this study highlight avenues to pursue to delay deterioration in managing bills and taxes, and help maintain financial control.