Clinical and demographic characteristics of elderly patients with dementia assisted at an outpatient clinic in Southern Brazil

Abstract

The aging of the population is a worldwide phenomenon, where 60% of elders live in developing areas of the world such as Brazil, regions in which few studies have been carried out.ObjectivesThe goal of this study was to evaluate the clinical and demographic profile of patients with dementing disorders seen at a specialized outpatient clinic in South Brazil.MethodsA sample of 105 demented patients seen at the Dementia Outpatient Clinic from Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre (HCPA), Brazil between June 2004 and June 2008. Evaluation of patients consisted of medical history, cognitive testing, assessment of functional status (Activities of Daily Living Scale - ADL; Instrumental Activities Daily Living - IADL) and application of the Neuropsychiatry Inventory (NPI) for behavioral symptoms. Severity of dementia was evaluated based on the CDR scale. All patients underwent laboratory screening tests and brain imaging exams to define etiology of dementia.ResultsOf the whole sample, 71% were female. Age was 79±8 years (mean±SD). Educational level was 4±3 years (mean±SD). Sixty-four patients (60%) presented the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. Of the whole sample, 26.7% were classified as CDR=1, 44% as CDR=2 and 29. 3% as CDR=3. A significant difference on the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) and functional status scores was observed among the CDR categories (severity). No significant association was found between severity and impairment on memory tests and behavioral symptoms.ConclusionsAlzheimer’s disease was the most common etiology, followed by vascular dementia. At diagnosis, most patients presented mild to moderate severity of dementia, independent of cause.

Clinical diagnosis of 80 cases of dementia in a university hospital

“…Concerning the prevalence of different types of dementia, most part of Brazilian studies have found AD as the prevalent type of dementia, followed by VD [4][5][6]8,9,[19][20][21]24 , in contrast our study. Vascular Dementia is predominant over the sample, with 17.5%.…”

“…Concerning to the mean age in the sample, the result showed a sample of younger people than that of several other studies that showed medians higher than 70 years old 5,19,[23][24][25] , despite of most of them were older than 60 years (67.5%). The study by Silva and Damasceno 9 , also in a tertiary care service showed similar results to ours.…”

“…Contradicting other studies 5,9,19,20 , the female group was not prevalent in most of the papers analyzed. The risk of developing dementia increases with age and the female sex is usually prevalent in older age groups.…”

Correlation between neuropsychiatric symptoms and caregiver burden in a population-based sample from São Paulo, Brazil: A preliminary report

“…Moscoso et al., 22 in thirty-one elderly patients with AD from the outpatient unit of CEREDIC (Clinics Hospital – Cognitive Reference Center), observed a mean Zarit score of 31.77 and NPI of 34.97, scores higher than those observed in our study. Godinho et al, 23 studying a sample of 64 clinical outpatients with Alzheimer's disease, observed a mean NPI score of 35. One possible explanation for this difference is that our sample was community-based, while Moscoso et al 22 evaluated a clinical sample.…”

Avaliação neuropsicológica da tomada de decisão no comprometimento cognitivo leve

“…Junta-se a tais desafios o aumento na incidência de doenças relacionadas ao envelhecimento (Aprahamian et al, 2009;Godinho, Gorczevski, & Heisler, 2010;Soares et al, 2012;World Health Organization [WHO], 2011). De fato, segundo a OMS (Organização Mundial da Saúde) (WHO, 2011), em todo o mundo ocorre um declínio na incidência de doenças infecto-contagiosas e, simultaneamente, aumenta a frequência de doenças crônicodegenerativas, processo este conhecido como transição epidemiológica.…”