Prevalence of dementia, related risk factors and psychiatric comorbidity in nursing home residents

Objective: The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of dementia and related factors and comorbid psychiatric disorder among elderly in nursing home. Methods: This study was done in 141 elderly people who live in Denizli nursing home. Dementia and psychiatric disorder were diagnosed according to DSM-IV diagnostic criteria. Mini Mental State Examination, Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale, Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia, Global Deterioration Scale, Multidimensional observation scale for elderly subjects were used for elderly in this study. Results: Our study includes elderly people who are men (66%) and women, the mean age of group was 74.99 +/- 9.81 years, the mean education years was 1.79 +/- 3.03 years, mean duration in nursing home was 42.68 months. Prevalence of DSM-IV dementia was 62.4% (n=88). Out of patients with dementia 59 (67%) were Alzheimer Disorder, 22 (25%) were vascular dementia and 7 (%8) were the other type of dementia. Age, number of chronic physical disorder and the number of the drugs used were higher in dementia group than in non-dementia group. Level of education was lower in elderly with dementia than elderly without dementia. Older age than 76 years, residing in rural areas, low education level, having to Diabetes Mellitus are determined to be the risk factors for depressive disorders according to logistic regression analysis. At least one psychiatric disorder was associated with 45.6% of dementia patients and depressive disorder was found to be the most diagnosed entity. Conclusion: The prevalence of dementia and comorbid depression is common among elderly people in nursing homes. (Anatolian Journal of Psychiatry 2009; 10:301-309)