[Do dementia patients living at home live longer than in a nursing home?]

Many studies have shown that the number of new dementia diagnoses in Germany is increasing yearly. Thus, two social tasks are important: the adequate support and care of dementia patients, now and in the future, as well as covering the costs thereof. The survival period of dementia patients has a central meaning - especially for health policy planning. Therefore, the question of our 8-year follow-up study was whether living conditions affect the survival period of dementia patients? A total of 173 dementia outpatients (ICD-10 numbers F00 and F01) were screened for survival time and living conditions. For deceased patients, a close reference person was interviewed, and the exact date of death was recorded. For statistical evaluation, the Cox proportional hazard model was used and dying risks were determined. Our investigation shows that a clear difference exists in the survival period of dementia patients, according to whether they have lived at home or in a senior citizen's home. Patients in senior citizen's homes had a higher relative dying risk of around 53.1% (hazard ratio), than for those cared for at home (p=0.047). Prospective research is needed to gain more evidence about the impact of social factors, e.g., living conditions, on the survival time of demented patients.