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Abstract
Objectives
Despite the suspected higher prevalence of dementia in first generation ethnic minority populations, little is known about their pathway to geriatric diagnostic facilities. This study describes presenting symptoms, demographic and clinical characteristics of a large cohort of patients from ethnic minority populations at their first visit to a geriatric day clinic and compares them with those of native majority (Dutch) patients.
Method
Retrospective case control study in an urban geriatric day clinic setting. Participants were 415 minority patients (cases) from 47 different countries and 428 native Dutch control patients. Measurements were demographic characteristics, cognitive screening results, informant questionnaires, neuropsychiatric and depressive symptoms and somatic comorbidity.
Results
Ethnic minority patients presented with a different profile of psychiatric and somatic comorbidity. They were younger, had longer duration of symptoms and possibly presented somewhat later in the course of the dementia than the controls. Minority patients had more neuropsychiatric and depressive symptoms than native Dutch patients. They also had more often somatic comorbidities than controls, especially diabetes mellitus.
Conclusions
Clinicians in geriatric diagnostic facilities should be aware of the younger age at presentation and the high prevalence of some specific risk factors for dementia in ethnic minority patients.
Acknowledgements
We thank Rick Scholte, Gwendolyn Telting, Lara Visch and Audrey Plat for their valuable help with data entry.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Funding
This study was made possible thanks to a grant from SKWOSZ (stichting Klinisch Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek Slotervaart Ziekenhuis).