Longitudinal analysis of dementia diagnosis and specialty care among racially diverse Medicare beneficiaries.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

There is insufficient understanding of diagnosis of etiologic dementia subtypes and contact with specialized dementia care among older Americans.

Methods

We quantified dementia diagnoses and subsequent health care over five years by etiologic subtype and physician specialty among Medicare beneficiaries with incident dementia diagnosis in 2008/09 (226,604 persons/714,015 person-years).

Results

Eighty-five percent of people were diagnosed by a nondementia specialist physician. Use of dementia specialists within one year (22%) and five years (36%) of diagnosis was low. "Unspecified" dementia diagnosis was common, higher among those diagnosed by nondementia specialists (33.2%) than dementia specialists (21.6%). Half of diagnoses were Alzheimer's disease.

D

SUBMITTER: Drabo EF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6874742 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature