Impact of hip fracture, heart failure and weight loss on the risk of institutionalization of community-dwelling patients with dementia

✍ Scribed by Marc Harboun; Pascale Dorenlot; Nadia Cohen; Elisabeth Steinhagen-Thiessen; Joël Ankri

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2008
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 83 KB
• Volume: 23
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0885-6230
• DOI: 10.1002/gps.2058

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Objectives

This study sought to identify the influence of medical symptoms and diseases on the risk of nursing home placement in a prospective cohort of newly diagnosed community‐dwelling patients with dementia.

Study design and setting

This study included 348 patients with dementia, consecutively diagnosed, recruited and followed at a geriatric outpatient center (mean age: 81 years, 65.5% with Alzheimer's disease, mean baseline MMSE score: 20.5, mean follow‐up: 20.5 months).

Results

After adjustment for factors commonly associated with institutionalization in this population, hip fracture in the 3 years preceding diagnosis, acute congestive heart failure during follow‐up and weight loss of more than 5% in any year during follow‐up were independently associated with nursing home placement.

Conclusion

This study confirms the independent contribution of specific medical symptoms and diseases to earlier institutionalization of patients with dementia. These results stress the importance of better knowledge of the specific characteristics of hip fracture, weight loss and congestive heart failure in the context of dementia, to make more effective prevention possible in this patient population. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.