Dementia and disability in old-age: a clinical perspective.
This article briefly reviews the subject of disability in elderly dementia patients, and focuses primarily on the clinical perspective. The prevalence of dementia among community-dwelling elderlies is estimated to be about 5% and increases with age. Disability due to cognitive impairment and dementia is frequent in this group. Clinical determinants of disability in dementia include: a) Diagnosis of dementia: disability is inherent to the diagnosis of dementia even though the term is not specified in modern psychiatric classifications; b) Severity of dementia: expressed by breakdown into stages or by providing a psychometric score; c) Neuropsychological correlates of performance; d) Associated psychopathology; e) Etiology of dementia; f) Associated impairment in health or physical handicap. Finally, some management principles of disability in dementia are considered.
Heinik
Jeremia
J
Margoletz Psychogeriatric Center, Ichilov Hospital, Tel Aviv, Israel. heinik@post.tau.ac.il
D000203:Activities of Daily Living / Q000523:psychology; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D003625:Data Collection / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003704:Dementia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007557:Israel / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D015995:Prevalence; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D009626:Terminology as Topic