Comorbidity Burden of Dementia: A Hospital-Based Retrospective Study from 2003 to 2012 in Seven Cities in China

Abstract

Dementia is increasing dramatically and imposes a huge burden on society. To date, there is a lack of data on the health status of patients with dementia in China. In an attempt to investigate the comorbidity burden of dementia patients in China at the national level, we enrolled 2,938 patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), vascular dementia (VaD), or other types of dementia, who were admitted to tertiary hospitals in seven regions of China from January 2003 to December 2012. The Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) was used to evaluate the comorbidity burden of the patients with dementia. Among these patients, 53.4% had AD, 26.3% had VaD, and 20.3% had other types of dementia. The CCI was 3.0 ± 1.9 for all patients, 3.4 ± 1.8 for those with VaD, and 3.0 ± 2.1 for those with AD. The CCI increased with age in all patients, and the length of hospital stay and daily expenses rose with age and CCI. Males had a higher CCI and a longer stay than females. Moreover, patients admitted in the last 5 years of the study had a higher CCI than those admitted in the first 5 years. We found that the comorbidity burden of patients with dementia is heavy. These findings provide a better understanding of the overall health status of dementia patients, and help to increase the awareness of clinicians and policy-makers to improve medical care for patients.

Gut Microbiota is Altered in Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease

“…It is worthy of noting that the detailed changes of the gut microbiota of AD patients in this study is different from ours. This discrepancy might be due to the sample size, population, lifestyle, dietary habits, RNA sequencing area, and comorbidity burden [25], which is associated with gut microbiota, between the two studies. However, the underlying mechanisms remained poorly understood.…”

Bidirectional relationship between caregiver burden and neuropsychiatric symptoms in patients with Alzheimer's disease: A narrative review

“…However, the patients with AD often cannot understand why the care has to be provided, and thus, they may refuse it . Furthermore, patients with AD might also be likely to suffer from other age‐related comorbidities that increase throughout the aging process . Thus, care becomes more complicated, and it results in increase disability, hospitalizations, and premature institutionalization.…”

“…17 Furthermore, patients with AD might also be likely to suffer from other age-related comorbidities that increase throughout the aging process. [18][19][20] Thus, care becomes more complicated, and it results in increase disability, hospitalizations, and premature institutionalization. On the other hand, as defined in the models of cognitive frailty, reversible cognitive and functional damages that can be caused by a number of factors associated with aging, including vascular diseases, sarcopenia, increased inflammation, metabolic and hormonal changes, and psychosocial factors may accelerate progression of dementia.…”

Age‐stratified longitudinal study of Alzheimer's and vascular dementia patients

“…Dementia is often associated with numerous comorbidities, defined as diseases that co‐occur on top of a primary disease 1 . Dementia patients have significantly more comorbidities compared to matched controls without dementia, 2,3 but studies do not agree on which comorbidities are more or less prevalent in dementia patients 2,4–7 . Dementia patients with comorbidities present with a higher rate of cognitive decline; 8,9 hence modification of lifestyle and treatment of comorbidities have beneficial effects on cognition and could delay or even prevent the onset of dementia 10 .…”