Aims: To analyse the epidemiology and treatment outcomes of dementia under conditions of routine clinical practice in Australian patients.
Methods: Patients with a diagnosis of “early” to “mild” dementia who are living in the community are eligible for this ongoing observational cohort study. Each subject will be followed for a period of 36 months, with visits after 3, 6, 12, 24 and then 36 months as part of routine clinical practice.
Results: To date, 123 patients have been recruited from 4 clinics around Australia, for whom baseline data are available. The mean age was 76.7±7.54 years and the most common diagnoses were dementia of the Alzheimer's type with late onset (42%); vascular dementia (13%); mixed Alzheimer's and vascular dementia (13%) and dementia of the Alzheimer's type with early onset (12%). The MMSE scores for these patients indicated they had mild dementia (mean score 22.6±5.16). The most commonly used medications were cholinesterase inhibitors with 30.9% of patients receiving galantamine, 32.5% receiving donepezil, and 2.4% receiving rivastigmine. The large majority of patients were living at home without additional outside care (94.3%) and were being cared for by a spouse (71.5%). The median NPI Caregiver Distress scores (4, range 0–36) and median Zarit Burden Interview scores (19, range 0–65) indicated a low level of caregiver burden at baseline.
Conclusions: The rapidly growing disease cohort will be a valuable resource for prospective research on the progression of dementia, resource and medication use, and the outcomes for individuals diagnosed with dementia and their carers.
