II. Ascertainment of a population of people with early‐onset dementia in Lothian, Scotland

Abstract

Objective The aim of the case ascertainment for the study was to identify as near complete as possible a population of patients with presenile dementia who had been identified by hospital contact within a defined period of time, and who were currently alive, in the Lothian area. It did not aim to establish epidemiological figures. Design The Lothian Psychiatric Case Register was the main source of case identification. Case notes were inspected and cases identified for the study. Setting Patients were either in long-term care or at home. Patients As described in Paper I. Age range 30–65 years. Measures Various diagnostic codings, including those of the ICD-9 were used to identify cases from the register. Feighner criteria were applied on case note inspection and DSM-III-R criteria after individuals had been seen. Results A potential of 557 cases were identified from the case register, etc. Of these, 431 were excluded and 126 seen for the study. Conclusions The criteria used for inclusion and exclusion of cases in this study are thus directed towards achieving the aims of this study, and the findings would have to be modified to reach an estimate of all cases of early-onset dementia in the Lothian area. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.