Alzheimer's Disease in India Consultancy Service

If you have a project, contact us for advice at hendi.lingiah@gmail.com

Join our Family Caregivers, Volunteers and Care Professionals on Facebook and LinkedIn.

Monday, July 4, 2011

The Indian Journal of Psychiatry : article on a study regarding the Dementia Mortality rate in India. 2011.

LETTER TO EDITOR,
Dementia mortality: Estimates of survival after the onset of dementia range from 4 to 12 years

The Psychotherapy Clinic, Hariharan Flats, 26/1, Arcot Street, T. Nagar, Chennai - 600 017, Tamil Nadu, India.

Year : 2011, Volume : 53, Issue : 2, Page : 178-179

"Dementia is a progressive degenerative disorder of the brain leading to severe cognitive impairment, behavioural disturbances, and loss of functional ability to perform activities of daily living. [1] Systematic review of literature, have concluded that even mild levels of cognitive impairment gave rise to increased risk of mortality. [2] The risk of mortality seemed to be twice as high as in people not having dementia. [2] Pneumonia, cardiovascular disease, pulmonary embolus, and dementia were the underlying cause and never the direct cause of death. [3]

A study on influence of type of dementia on mortality reported that the risk ratio was 2.0 (95% confidence interval 1.5-2.7) for Alzheimer's disease and 3.3 (95% confidence interval 2.0-5.3) for vascular dementia. The gender, age, pre-morbid physical conditions, severity of dementia and institutional accommodation seem to have a strong influence on the mortality pattern among patients with dementia. [4],[5],[6] This letter presents observation into the duration, physical co-morbidity, and mortality patterns among patients with dementia".

"Vision Age India, a voluntary organization offers free home care service for patients with dementia; the patients are referred by psychiatrists and neurologists. All the patients had clinical diagnosis made by the respective consultant. The present report is based on an observation of mortality patterns observed in ten demised patients, over a period of six months, among the home care service users. The information was collected in a mortality performa developed for this purpose from the family members".

"The patients were in the age group between 65 and 95 years (mean 74.20, median 74 and SD 8.24); there were four males and six females. Eight person had Alzheimer's disease, one person had vascular dementia, and one person had mixed type of vascular and Alzheimer's disease. It was found that the common causes of death among patients were myocardial infarction, pneumonia, lung infections, and undetected medical complications. The duration of dementia was less than four years in six patients, less than eight years in two patients, and twelve years in two patients. The family members were taking care of all the patients in their residence with part time nursing assistance. The co-morbid conditions were diabetes mellitus, hypertension, hip fracture, thyroid problems, stroke, and epilepsy".


......

read more at the following link :


Ravi S. Dementia mortality: Estimates of survival after the onset of dementia range from 4 to 12 years. Indian J Psychiatry [serial online] 2011 [cited 2011 Jul 4];53:178-9. Available from: http://www.indianjpsychiatry.org/text.asp?2011/53/2/178/82565


No comments: