An assessesment of telephone assistance systems for caregivers of patients with Alzheimer's disease.
BACKGROUND
Telephone assistance is a common practice in neurology, although there are only a few studies about this type of healthcare. We have evaluated a Telephone Assistance System (TAS) for caregivers of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) from 2 points of view: financially and according to the level of satisfaction of the caregiver.


METHODS
97 patients with a diagnosis of AD according to NINCDS-ADRDA criteria and their 97 informal caregivers were selected. We studied cost differences between on-site assistance and telephone assistance (TAS) for 12 months. We used a self-administered questionnaire to assess the level of satisfaction of caregivers at the end of the study period.


RESULTS
TAS savings amounted to 80.05 ± 27.07 euros per user. 73.6% of the caregivers consider TAS a better or much better system than on-site assistance, while only 2.6% of the caregivers considered TAS a worse or much worse system than on-site assistance.


CONCLUSIONS
Telephone assistance systems are an efficient healthcare resource for monitoring patients with AD in neurology departments. Furthermore, the level of user satisfaction was high. We therefore consider that telephone assistance service should be offered by healthcare services.
Unidad de Demencias, Servicio de Neurología, Hospital Virgen de la Victoria, Unidad de Gestión Clínica Intercentros de Neurociencias, Málaga, España. Electronic address: franciscojgarzonm@gmail.com.
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Garzón-Maldonado
Departamento de Salud Pública y Psiquiatría, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Málaga, Málaga, España.
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Gutiérrez-Bedmar
Unidad de Demencias, Servicio de Neurología, Hospital Virgen de la Victoria, Unidad de Gestión Clínica Intercentros de Neurociencias, Málaga, España.
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Serrano-Castro
Enfermera de Enlace Hospitalaria, Hospital Virgen de la Victoria, Málaga, España.
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Requena-Toro
Enfermera de Enlace Hospitalaria, Hospital Virgen de la Victoria, Málaga, España.
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Padilla-Romero
Departamento de Medicina y Dermatología, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Málaga, Málaga, España; Centro de Investigaciones Médico-Sanitarias (CIMES), Universidad de Málaga, Málaga, España; Instituto de Investigación Biomédica de Málaga (IBIMA), Málaga, España.
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García-Casares
D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000191:economics / Q000523:psychology*; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D000072141:Neurologists; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013689:Telephone
Alzheimer's disease; Asistencia telefónica; Caregiver; Cuidador; Cuidados; Dementia Unit; Enfermedad de Alzheimer; Healthcare; Satisfacción; Satisfaction; Telephone assistance; Unidad de Demencia