Knowledge of general practitioners on dementia and mild cognitive impairment: a cross-sectional, questionnaire study from Hungary

Figures & data

Table 1. List of the applied questions and question types.

Question type	Subject
Demographic questions	Characteristics of GPs and their practices
Open-ended questions	Risk factors for dementia Preventive methods for dementia
	Types of dementia Types of reversible dementia
Ranking task	Prevalence of different types of dementia
Fixed-response questions	Familiarity with mild cognitive impairment
	Symptoms of mild cognitive impairment*
	Symptoms of dementia*
	Anti-dementia medications for mild dementia* Anti-dementia medications for moderate dementia* Anti-dementia medications for severe dementia*
	Clinical effects of anti-dementia medications*
	Time needed to judge the efficacy of anti-dementia medications

*multiple choice question

Table 2. General practitioners’ demographics and practice characteristics.

Characteristics	Options	%
Gender (n = 387)	male	46.3%
	female	53.7%
Age (n = 393)	25–35	5.9%
	36–45	12.5%
	46–55	24.9%
	56–65	40.2%
	65+	16.5%
Years in GP practice (n = 390)	0–10	19.2%
	11–20	18.7%
	21–30	31.8%
	31–40	21.0%
	40+	9.2%
Number of dementia patients (n = 383)	0–50	49.9%
	51–100	38.1%
	101–150	8.4%
	151–200	2.6%
	200+	1.0%
Place of practice (n = 372)	urban	66.1%
	rural	33.9%
Dementia training (last two years) (n = 366)	yes	19.4%
	no	80.6%

Table 3. General practitioners’ perception of risk factors for dementia (organized into categories).

Main categories	Vascular and metabolic factors	Lifestyle and health care factors	Social and psychological factors	Genetic factors	Demographic predispositions
Examples	Cerebro-cardiovascular diseases Hypertension Diabetes mellitus Hyperlipidemia Metabolic disturbances Stroke	Alcohol or drug abuse Smoking Cognitive inactivity Unhealthy diet Obesity Physical inactivity Stressful lifestyle Improper medication	Social isolation Depression	Familial occurrence of dementia	Old age Low education Sex/Gender
Respondents	n = 209
Total response items	700
Item/category	269 (38.3%)	204 (29.1%)	85 (12.1%)	72 (10.3%)	71 (10.1%)

Table 4. General practitioners’ perception of types of dementia (organized into categories).

Main categories	Primary neurodegenerative diseases	Vascular dementia diseases	Secondary dementia diseases	Mixed dementia diseases	Miscellaneous
Examples	Alzheimer’s disease Parkinson’s disease Huntington’s disease Frontotemporal dementia (e.g. Pick’s disease) Dementia with Lewy bodies Other genetic origin	Vascular dementia (e.g. multi-infarct dementia) Post-stroke dementia	Infections/inflammations (e.g. Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease) Intoxications (e.g. alcohol, drugs) Traumas Secondary dementias associated with somatic diseases Other secondary dementias	Mixed type dementias	Cognitive impairments in affective disorders Mild Cognitive Impairment
Respondents	n = 267
Total response items	933
Item/category	420 (45.0%)	274 (29.4%)	169 (18.1%)	43 (4.6%)	27 (2.9%)

Table 5. General practitioners’ ranking of different dementia types based on their prevalence.

Ranking based on GPs’ answers	M (n = 235)	SD	Ranking based on prevalence studies ^+
1. Vascular dementia*	1.2	0.51	2.
2. Alzheimer’s disease*	2.9	1.29	1.
3. Mixed dementia	3.3	1.30	3.
4. Parkinson’s disease	3.6	1.47	5.
5. Frontotemporal dementia	4.8	1.34	6.
6. Pick’s disease	6.7	1.22	7.
7. Dementia with Lewy bodies*	6.8	1.68	4.
8. Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease*	7.7	1.21	9.
9. Huntington’s disease*	7.8	1.26	8.

M, SD: mean and standard deviation of rank values; *changes of relative order compared to correct ranking;

⁺ (Burns & Iliffe, 2009; National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, 2018; Onyike & Diehl-Schmid, 2013; Rawlins et al., 2016; Tysnes & Storstein, 2017).

Table 6. General practitioners’ recommendations of anti-dementia medications in different dementia stages.

	cognition-enhancing supplements	acetylcholinesterase inhibitors	glutamergic agents
mild* (n = 351)	96.3%	7.1%	2.3%
moderate* (n =293)	63.5%	35.8%	20.8%
severe* (n= 262)	42.0%	35.1%	42.4%

* multiple choice question; percentages do not add up to 100%.

Burns, A., & Iliffe, S. (2009). Dementia. BMJ, 338, b75. doi:10.1136/bmj.b75

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