Dementia severity at death: a register-based cohort study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

One third of older people are estimated to die with dementia, which is a principal cause of death in developed countries. While it is assumed that people die with severe dementia this is not based on evidence.

Methods

Cohort study using a large secondary mental healthcare database in North London, UK. We included people aged over 65 years, diagnosed with dementia between 2008 and 2016, who subsequently died. We estimated dementia severity using mini-mental state examination (MMSE) scores, adjusting for the time between last score and death using the average annual MMSE decline in the cohort (1.5 points/year). We explored the association of sociodemographic and clinical factors, including medication use, with estimated MMSE score at death using linear regression.

SUBMITTER: Aworinde J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6211473 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature