Tele‐Dementia in Africa: Setting roadmap for implementation

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundAlzheimer’s disease and dementia related disorder incidence and prevalence continue to increase in Africa due to changing ageing demographics. Despite this rise, overall quality and quantity of available evidence to inform best practices in recruitment, retention and inclusion of underrepresented population in ADRD research is very low. Africa needs creative innovations to bridge the dementia care gap and telemedicine offers a unique opportunity for prompt diagnosis, follow up and care supportMethodThis was an observational study of remote video assessment of persons living with Dementia and their caregivers. Mobile phone and web‐based applications for virtual consultation and health information management system were built to engage patients with various clinical conditions across multiple specialties. The assessment and follow up were done between September 2020 and December 2022.Cognitive assessment tools were administered via telemedicine platform for screening and post diagnostic management due to the COVID‐19 lock downResultA total of 50 patients with Dementia and their caregivers attending Neurology clinic at the Geriatric centre UCH were engaged on the platform for clinical follow up. Mean(+SD) age of was 74.0(+7.2) year and 56% were females, 82.8% had some form of formal education, 67.2% married and 97.9 lived with other persons. Over 31.9% participants had at least one comorbidity. 93% of the participants expressed satisfaction with video conferencing platform. 87% retention rate on follow up on the platform,13% of drop out rate due to technical fault and poor internet connectionConclusionwe believe implementation of telemedicine will improve recruitment and retention of persons living with dementia and it offers a promising dementia management strategy for Africa