Diagnostic evaluation of dementia in the secondary health care sector
Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
BACKGROUND: We conducted a nationwide registry-based study of the quality of diagnostic evaluation for dementia in the secondary health care sector. METHOD: Two hundred patients were randomly selected from the patient population (4,682 patients) registered for the first time with a dementia diagnosis in the nationwide hospital registries during the last 6 months of 2003. Through medical record review, we evaluated the completeness of the work-up on which the dementia diagnosis was based, using evidence-based dementia guidelines as reference standards. RESULTS: Satisfactory or acceptable completion of the basic dementia work-up was documented in 51.3% of the patients. Only 11.5% of those with unsatisfactory work-up were referred to follow-up investigations. Dementia syndrome was confirmed in 88.5% of the cases, but correct subtypes were diagnosed in only 35.1%. CONCLUSION: The adherence to clinical guidelines concerning dementia work-up is inadequate in the secondary health care sector. Our findings call for improvement in the organization of clinical dementia care, for education of specialists and for changes in attitude towards making a diagnosis of dementia.
Original language | English |
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Journal | Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders |
Volume | 27 |
Issue number | 6 |
Pages (from-to) | 534-42 |
Number of pages | 8 |
ISSN | 1420-8008 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2009 |
Bibliographical note
Keywords: Aged; Alzheimer Disease; Cognition; Delivery of Health Care; Dementia; Denmark; Guidelines as Topic; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Medical Records; Neuropsychological Tests; Reference Standards; Registries; Reproducibility of Results; Specialization; Tomography, X-Ray Computed
ID: 19978253