Use of health and social care services in a cohort of Italian dementia patients.

Use of health and social care services in a cohort of Italian dementia patients. Funct Neurol. 2013 Oct-Dec;28(4):265-73 Authors: Scalmana S, Di Napoli A, Franco F, Vanacore N, Di Lallo D, Giarrizzo ML, Guasticchi G, Working Group for Dementia of Lazio region Abstract The aim of this study, conducted in the Region of Lazio, Italy, in 2008-2010, was to describe the use, over a one-year period, of health and social care services in a cohort of 712 patients with a diagnosis of dementia. These patients had never previously used such services. We evaluated the association between the patients' sociodemographic and clinical characteristics and their use of services. Sociodemographic and clinical data were collected at baseline using validated instruments, while the use of services was investigated at the end of the one-year follow-up through a structured (questionnaire-based) interview with the caregiver. We found that 11.9% of patients used health or social care services. The most frequent diagnoses were: Alzheimer's disease (72.1%), mixed dementia (20.5%), and vascular dementia (9.7%). A higher probability of use of services was observed in patients with: more than five years of schooling (OR=1.79; 95%CI:1.08-2.96); one or more comorbidity (OR=4.87; 95%CI:2.05- 11.57); severe (OR=4.78; 95%CI:1.75-13.06) or moderate dementia (OR=2.08; 95%CI:0.98-4.40). The low health and social care service use among dementia patients in this study could ...
Source: Functional Neurology - Category: Neurology Tags: Funct Neurol Source Type: research