II. Ascertainment of a population of people with early-onset dementia in Lothian, Scotland

✍ Scribed by Kirstie Woodburn; Eve Johnstone

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 191 KB
• Volume: 14
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0885-6230
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-1166(199905)14:5<362::aid-gps914>3.0.co;2-u

✦ Synopsis

Objective. The aim of the case ascertainment for the study was to identify as near complete as possible a population of patients with presenile dementia who had been identi®ed by hospital contact within a de®ned period of time, and who were currently alive, in the Lothian area. It did not aim to establish epidemiological ®gures.

Design. The Lothian Psychiatric Case Register was the main source of case identi®cation. Case notes were inspected and cases identi®ed for the study.

Setting. Patients were either in long-term care or at home. Patients. As described in Paper I. Age range 30±65 years.

Measures. Various diagnostic codings, including those of the ICD-9 were used to identify cases from the register. Feighner criteria were applied on case note inspection and DSM-III-R criteria after individuals had been seen.

Results. A potential of 557 cases were identi®ed from the case register, etc. Of these, 431 were excluded and 126 seen for the study.

Conclusions. The criteria used for inclusion and exclusion of cases in this study are thus directed towards achieving the aims of this study, and the ®ndings would have to be modi®ed to reach an estimate of all cases of early-onset dementia in the Lothian area.