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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Dementia in primary care
— the first survey of Irish general practitioners | | Author(s) | Suzanne Cahill, Maeve Clark, Cathal Walsh |
| Journal title | International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, vol 21, no 4, April 2006 |
| Pages | pp 319-324 |
| Source | http://www.interscience.wiley.com |
| Keywords | Dementia ; Diagnosis ; Attitude ; General practitioners ; Social surveys ; Ireland. |
| Annotation | Of 600 questionnaires sent to a sample of Irish general practitioners regarding their attitudes and practices in relation to screening, diagnosing and disclosing a dementia diagnosis to patients, 300 responses were usable. GPs reported diagnosing an average four new case of dementia annually. A multivariate analysis revealed that females diagnosed significantly fewer cases annually. A large majority of GPs reported performing thyroid function tests (77%), B12 (75%) and folic acid tests (75%) to rule out reversible causes of cognitive impairment. The most reliable signs and symptoms of dementia identified were memory problems (31%), lack of confidence (30%), and the impact of the diagnosis on the patient (28%). GPs' age and gender were significantly associated with barriers to diagnosis. Only 19% claimed they often or always disclosed a diagnosis to a patient. More than one third of GPs (38%) reported that the key factor influencing their disclosure patterns was their perceptions of the patient's level of comprehension. Most GPs (90%) had never undergone any dementia specific training, and most (83%) expressed a desire for this. There is an urgent need to develop active and more systematic approaches to GP training in dementia care. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-060609203 A |
| Classmark | EA: LK7: DP: QT6: 3F: 763 |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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