Clinical and epidemiological baseline characterization of Dementia cases in a specialized center in Recife, Brazil

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundPopulation aging has been considered the main risk factor for the development of dementia globally. In low‐ and middle‐income countries such as Brazil, the projections are for expressive numbers due to poor socio‐economic conditions. However, the epidemiological profile of dementias in Brazil is still little known due to the scarcity of studies, especially in the northeast of the country, where poverty and illiteracy are severe.MethodRetrospective and descriptive study of data obtained from the comprehensive review of medical records after approval by the Ethics Committee. Records of cases treated between 2018 and 2021 were examined, cases that did not have information in the medical record were excluded from the study.Result128 medical records were analyzed, 109 of which met inclusion criteria. 57.8% of patients were male with a mean age of 65.3 years. 38.4% of the sample had less than 8 years of formal education and 15.1% were illiterate. Unskilled manual labor was the occupation type in 50% of the sample. The mean baseline Mini‐Mental State Examination (MMSE) score was 16.88. Alzheimer’s disease was the most frequent diagnosis (37%) mostly in a moderate (22%) to advanced stage (20%) of dementia. 32% of all cases met criteria for mixed forms of Dementia. Frontotemporal Dementia (14%), Lewy Body’s Disease (6%) and Pure Vascular Dementia (6%) were also reported. 69.7% of our sample underwent magnetic resonance imaging and 24% also had access to molecular imaging methods.ConclusionThe low level of education possibly reflects socioeconomic inequalities in Brazil, since we had a lower level of education compared to epidemiological studies of Dementia in the south‐southeast region. The degree of dementia of the examined cases caught our attention, most of them in a moderate or advanced stage, probably related to the time patients wait for care at a specialized center. Such bias may also explain the high frequency of non‐AD pathologies in the sample, in contrast to data from the general population. With the limitation of its descriptive and retrospective design, the present study represents an important initiative in the sense of characterizing data on Dementia in northeastern Brazil.