BPSD are common in older hospital patients with dementia and associated with considerable distress in nursing staff, as well as a wide range of special treatments needs and additional behavioural and medical complications. Management strategies are needed to improve the situation for both patients and hospital staff.

I n 2016, 8.56 million older patients were treated on an inpatient basis in general hospital departments in Germany. This is equivalent to 44.7% of all inpatients of all age groups. The length of hospital stay of patients aged 65 or older was considerably longer compared with that of younger patients (8.1 days versus 4.9 days); as the result, older patients accounted for 57.1% of all days of inpatient treatment, making them the largest group of inpatients (1). A considerable number of older hospitalized patients with physical illnesses also suffer from dementia and related cognitive impairments. However, the exact number of patients experiencing these health problems is currently not known. Previous studies were almost impossible to compare because the methods they used varied widely and they typically comprised small, non-Working Group Psychiatric Epidemiology,

Significant differences for a number of indicators of the quality of life point in favour of special dementia care. Future evaluation studies ought to examine not only the general efficacy of types of care designed especially for dementia patients but also the efficacy of the respective individual components (i.e. caregiver ratio).

People with dementia form the major group of residents in German nursing homes. The study provides important data on need for care and health care planning.

The 6CIT is a feasible and valid screening tool for the detection of dementia in older general hospital patients. The 6CIT outperformed the nurse ratings of cognitive status and dementia diagnoses from medical records, suggesting that standardized screening may have benefits with regard to case finding. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.