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Table 1 Descriptive characteristics of adults age 65 or older with dementia, by health sector

From: Antipsychotics and dementia in Canada: a retrospective cross-sectional study of four health sectors

 

Sector

Characteristic

HC

ALC

CCC

LTC

Mean Age (SDa)

84.3 (7.0)

84.4 (7.0)

84.5 (7.1)

85.8 (7.2)

Male

53.6% (21777)

52.9% (3958)

45.8% (1978)

30.1% (27331)

Selected Diagnoses

 Hypertension

N/A

N/A

60.5% (2613)

58.4% (52782)

 Anxiety disorder

N/A

N/A

9.8% (423)

8.6% (7806)

 Depression

N/A

N/A

23.1% (997)

30.9% (28078)

 Bipolar Disorder

N/A

N/A

1.1% (49)

1.5% (1350)

 Arthritis

N/A

N/A

31.6% (1366)

39.4% (35609)

 Diabetes

22.3% (9080)

25.7% (1922)

27.5% (1187)

22.7% (20651)

 Other Cardiovascular

70.2% (28554)

77.7% (5812)

25.3% (1094)

14.8% (13387)

Any psychiatric condition

40.9% (16639)

44.1% (3297)

49.8% (2152)

55.1% (50067)

Cognitive Performance Scaleb

Moderate to Severe Impairment

43.3% (17619)

70.8% (5291)

76.2% (4318)

77.9% (70758)

Activities of Daily Living Scalec

- Mean (SD)

3.1 (3.9)

7.9 (4.5)

11.0 (4.3)

9.5 (4.6)

CHESS Scaled - Mean (SD)

1.5 (1.2)

2.2 (1.1)

2.0 (1.5)

0.9 (1.1)

Aggressive Behavior Scale

(ABS)e – Mean (SD)

0.5 (1.0)

0.7 (1.4)

1.5 (2.4)

1.7 (2.4)

Mean ABS Score for those where ABS >0

2.0 (1.3)

2.2 (1.6)

3.3 (2.7)

3.2 (2.4)

Behavior and Psychotic Symptoms:

 None

70.2% (28554)

61.9% (4554)

50.4% (2174)

46.4% (42185)

 Behavior

18.7% (7598)

26.6% (1989)

34.5% (1491)

47.3% (42967)

 Psychotic

6.2% (2508)

6.1% (459)

4.6% (198)

1.7% (1553)

 Both

4.9% (1990)

6.4% (475)

10.5% (455)

4.6% (4141)

  1. aStandard Deviation
  2. bThe Cognitive Performance Scale is categorical and not normally distributed. A score of 3 or more is indicative of moderate to very severely impaired cognition
  3. cThe Activities of Daily Living Scale ranges from 0 to 16 with higher scores indicating more impairment of self-sufficiency in ADL performance
  4. dThe Changes in Health, End Stage Disease, Signs and Symptoms (CHESS) Scale ranges from 0 to 6 with higher scores indicating greater health instability and medical complexity
  5. eThe Aggressive Behaviour Scale, available in the data used for the CCC and LTC, ranges from 0 to 12 with higher scores indicating a greater number and frequency of behaviors in the 7 days prior to assessment. A modified version of the scale ranging from 0 to 8 was calculated for the HC and ALC data since the items used to calculate the scale reflect behaviour in the prior 3 days
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BMC Geriatrics

ISSN: 1471-2318

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