Populacional epidemiological study of dementia in the city of Londrina, Paraná, Brazil

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundUnderstanding the population context of dementias allows us to prepare socio‐economic and public policies aimed at broad and early care of the elderly population, in order to enhance health care, concerning the prevention and treatment of these diseases. The objective of the study is to obtain an estimate of the prevalence of dementia in Londrina ‐ PR, through the sample of two specialized service centers, as well as qualitative analysis of variants, such as subtype of dementias, gender, age, education, comorbidities, life habits, degree of dementia (CDR) and drugs used for its treatment, with the purpose of correlating them to gather information on potential risk factors for the development of dementia and, therefore, to be able to perform early diagnoses and proper interventions.MethodA collection of 1469 electronic medical records were undertaken and analyzed manually from patients who consulted with previous diagnosis or who were diagnosed with dementia in 2019. When the exclusion criteria were applied, a total of 658 patients remained.ResultThe prevalence found in the ambulatory clinics of PUC‐PR and in the Municipal Polyclinic of Londrina are, respectively, 11.18% and 60.80%. It was detected that 60.8% of the diagnoses were in the female sex, with only 39.2% in the male sex. And there was a peak of diagnoses in patients who were 80‐89 years old. It was also observed 82% of cases of Alzheimer's Disease (AD), 7.1% of Mixed Dementia (MD), 5.8% of Vascular Dementia (VD), 3.4% of Lewy's Body Dementia and 1.7% of Parkinson's Disease. No correlation of dependence was identified between the development of dementia and the level of education (p > 0.05). In comorbidities, previous strokes were a risk factor for AD, VD and MD. A higher CDR was observed in older age groups. Greater use of donepezil and memantine was observed in AD and greater use of galantamine in DV.ConclusionIt has been concluded that additional studies are needed to prove the potential risk factors for dementias, so that an early approach and prevention of this disease can be invested in, improving care even more.