Survival After Diagnosis of Dementia in Primary Care

A recent population-based study, in which researchers used a structured screening tool for dementia, showed a median survival after dementia onset of 10.7 years in people aged 65–69 and 3.8 years in people aged ≥90 (JW Gen Med Jan 31 2008). In this cohort study, U.K. investigators examined data from 353 general practices to determine the incidence of dementia that was diagnosed in primary care and postdiagnosis survival time.

During 1990–2007, dementia was diagnosed in >22,500 patients. The control group consisted of >112,000 randomly selected patients without dementia. Predictably, dementia incidence rose with age (e.g., incidence in patients aged ≥90 was 15 times greater than in patients aged 60–69). At all ages, the incidence was greater …