Comorbidity and polypharmacy in people with dementia: insights from a large, population-based cross-sectional analysis of primary care data

Fiona Clague, Stewart W. Mercer, Gary McLean, Emma Reynish, Bruce Guthrie

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Background: The care of older people with dementia is often complicated by physical comorbidity and polypharmacy, but the extent and patterns of these have not been well described. This paper reports analysis of these factors within a large, cross sectional primary care dataset.Methods: Data was extracted for 291,169 people aged 65 years or over registered with 314 general practices in Scotland, of whom 10,258 had an electronically recorded dementia diagnosis. Differences in the number and type of 32 physical conditions, and the number of repeat prescriptions in those with and without dementia were examined. Age-gender standardised rates were used to calculate odds ratio (ORs) of physical comorbidity and polypharmacy.Results: People with dementia, after controlling for age and sex had on average more physical conditions than controls (mean number of conditions 2.9 vs. 2.4; p
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)33-39
Number of pages7
JournalAge and Ageing
Volume46
Issue number1
Early online date13 Oct 2016
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 13 Jan 2017

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • Co-morbidity
  • Multimorbidity
  • Dementia
  • Alzheimer's disease
  • Polypharmacy

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