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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Behavioural disturbance triggers recognition of dementia by family informants | | Author(s) | A Eustace, I Bruce, R Coen |
| Journal title | International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, vol 22, no 6, June 2007 |
| Pages | pp 574-579 |
| Source | http://www.interscience.wiley.com |
| Keywords | Dementia ; Symptoms ; Behaviour disorders ; Diagnosis ; The Family ; Ireland. |
| Annotation | The aim was determine the frequency of unrecognised dementia in community-dwelling older people and to identify factors associated with informants' recognition of dementia. Participants were 62 people aged 65+ living in the community in Dublin meeting ICD-19 criteria for dementia who had reliable informants. Prior to the start of interview, the informant was questioned about whether it was felt that the patient had memory difficulties, and if so whether a medical evaluation for the memory problem had been carried out. A psychiatrist then interviewed the patient and informant to establish whether the patient met ICD-10 criteria for dementia. Assessments carried out were the Blessed Dementia Rating Scale, the Clinical Dementia Rating Scale, the Behave-AD and the Baumgarten Behavioural Disturbance Scale. 29% of family informants of people with dementia failed to recognise a problem with their relative's memory. Where memory difficulties were recognised, only 39% of the group received a medical evaluation. Using univariate analysis, recognition of memory difficulties by family informants was associated with higher levels of behaviour disturbance, greater functional impairment, with increasing cognitive impairment. Using a logistic regression model to test the independence of these variables, increasing behavioural disturbance was associated with recognition of dementia by family informants. However, even with recognition of dementia, families often fail to seek medical attention. Education of the lay public on the early signs and symptoms of dementia must be a key first step in improving recognition of dementia in community-dwelling older people. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-070627228 A |
| Classmark | EA: CT: EP: LK7: SJ: 763 |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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