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Dementia care in general practice. What can the BEACH survey tell us?
1Research and Development Unit, Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, New South Wales.
Background:
Only a small amount of rather selective information about dementia care in general practice in Australia is available.
Aim:
To obtain a broader understanding of the prevalence and management of dementia in general practice.
Method:
An analysis of data from the Bettering the Evaluation And Care of Health (BEACH) study of general practice in 1998-2000 was undertaken.
Results:
Only 21% of GPs reported any encounter with a patient at which dementia was treated within their reported 100 patient encounters. These encounters comprised only 0.43% of all encounters; 39% of these encounters were in a nursing home and 28% occurred in the GP's consulting rooms. For 7% of patients the diagnosis of dementia was new. Most patients with dementia were aged over 75 years, but dementia was treated in only 3% of all patients of this age. It was treated in 19% of patients seen in nursing homes. Nearly all patients (96%) with dementia had other conditions managed at the encounter. Medication was infrequently prescribed for dementia.
Discussion:
More information is needed about dementia and its care in the community--its stage, extent of impairment and disability, social functioning, use of services, carers and their health, and progression over time.
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