What does having a mild cognitive impairment mean?

However, if a patient’s illness does meet criteria for MCI, that’s basically just impairment in the instrumental activities of daily living. So that would be difficulty with paying bills or other financial actions, cooking, making shopping lists, grocery shopping. And there can be forgetfulness, but not to the point that it interferes with activities such as grooming themselves, bathing, the activities of daily living. And if it’s caught early, before people do have the diagnosis of dementia, they do go through a stage where their symptoms are just not as severe.