Prevalence of Dementia in a Geriatric Palliative Care Unit

To determine the prevalence of dementia in a palliative care unit (PCU) and to determine whether there is a difference between length of stay (LOS) and Palliative Performance Scale (PPS) score in individuals admitted with a primary diagnosis of dementia compared to individuals admitted with other noncancer and cancer diagnoses.

Descriptive retrospective chart review.

Geriatric PCU in an academic community geriatric hospital.

All individuals admitted to the Baycrest Health Sciences PCU from January 1, 2014, to September 1, 2016.

Individuals with an admission diagnosis of cancer, noncancer, and dementia and their corresponding PPS scores were identified. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics.

A total of 780 patients were admitted to the PCU during the study period: 32 (4.1%) individuals had advanced dementia, 121 (15.5%) had a noncancer diagnosis, and 627 (80.4%) had cancer as the primary reason for admission. In the cancer and noncancer groups, 113 patients had a comorbid dementia diagnosis. The mean admission PPS score in patients with cancer was 36%, noncancer was 32.6%, and dementia was 23.8% ( P < .001). Mean LOS in patients with cancer was 32 days, noncancer patients was 34.3 days, and patients with advanced dementia was 33.3 days ( P = .90).

Individuals with an admission diagnosis of advanced dementia had a lower mean PPS score than individuals admitted with other noncancer and cancer diagnoses. There was no difference in the mean LOS between the 3 groups. Individuals with an admission diagnosis of advanced dementia should not be refused admission because of fear of outliving their prognosis.