Health service utilization by Alzheimer's disease patients: a 2-year follow-up of primary versus subspecialty care.
All dementia patients and their caregivers who had received a university-based comprehensive evaluation and a diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease during 1997 (N = 80) were identified. Of the original cohort, 48.8% (n = 39) were able to be contacted approximately 2 years after their initial assessment, and the caregivers were the informants for this follow-up. Two subgroups were defined: 22 patients were being seen only by their primary care physicians (MED), while 17 patients were also being treated by a geriatric psychiatry faculty member (GERO). There were statistically significant differences between the 2 groups (MED versus GERO, respectively) at follow-up in terms of (1) institutionalization (30.0% versus 4.6%, P < .05), (2) CDR (2.3 versus 1.5, P < .005), and (3) prescription of donepezil at follow-up (45.5% versus 76.5%, P = .05). These differences are being assessed in a larger scale prospective study.
Aupperle
Peter M
PM
Division of Geriatric Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, University Behavioral HealthCare, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Picataway, New Jersey 08855-1392, USA.
MacPhee
Edward R
ER
Coyne
Andrew C
AC
Blume
Jonathan
J
Sanchez
Betty
B
D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005852:Geriatric Psychiatry; D006296:Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011320:Primary Health Care; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales