Abstract
BackgroundThis paper provides a first comparative exploratory analysis of our findings from DEMDATA, a collaborative project between Austria and the Czech Republic. Analysed here are data from the residents and the environment assessment protocol.MethodsIn a cross sectional study design, residents from randomly drawn and stratified nursing homes were investigated using a common study protocol.ResultsFrom a total resident pool of 1666 persons, 1085 (571 in Austria, 514 in the Czech Republic) persons signed a consent form and participated in the data collection.More than 70% of residents assessed were female and the population was on average 85 years old. A discrepancy between the presence of a medical diagnosis in the charts of the residents and the results of cognitive testing was found. In Austria, 85.2%, in the Czech Republic 53.0% of residents had cognitive impairment. In Austria 80.0%, and in the Czech Republic 56.7% had behavioural problems. With respect to pain, 44.8% in Austria, and 51.5% in the Czech Republic had mild to severe pain. 78.4% of Austrian and 74.5% of the residents had problems with mobility and both populations were in danger of malnutrition.ConclusionsMost of the prevalence rates are comparable with previous studies also using direct resident assessment. Variations in prevalence rates seem to result mainly from the assessment technique (direct cognitive testing vs. medical chart review). The high prevalence rates for dementia, behavioural symptoms, pain and malnutrition indicate an immediate call for attention to further research and practice development.
Highlights
This paper provides a first comparative exploratory analysis of our findings from DEMDATA, a collaborative project between Austria and the Czech Republic
Sample In total, 702 residents in eight Austrian and 964 residents in 14 participating Czech nursing homes were invited via the management of the nursing homes to take part in the study
Most residents in both countries had the nationality of the respective country and had German or Czech as first languages
Summary
This paper provides a first comparative exploratory analysis of our findings from DEMDATA, a collaborative project between Austria and the Czech Republic. According to Alzheimer’s Disease International, about 46.8 million persons suffer from dementia worldwide [1]. This number is expected to increase to 74.7 million persons by 2030 and to 131.5 million by 2050. Because the symptoms of dementia have been shown to be one of the most important factors associated with institutional long-term care (iLTC) admission [2], providing guidelines and concepts for high-quality iLTC for persons with dementia in institutions (such as nursing homes) is a particular challenge for most countries worldwide. The OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, [3]) as well as the European Commission (EC [4]) have repeatedly pointed out that the progress in dementia care and long-term care research is slow and more research data are needed. Several authors point to the necessity of international collaborative studies as a possibility to hasten progress [5, 6]
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