Katelyn Yunes, MS
WKPIC Doctoral Intern
Haaksma and colleagues (2019) set out to determine factors that would facilitate accurate prediction of mortality rate in individuals with late-onset (i.e., ≥ age 65 at diagnosis) dementia. Participants were 55,076 individuals from 829 Swedish health centers who had been diagnosed with late-onset dementia by either their primary care or specialist memory doctor between May 2007 and December 2015. The researchers found that accurate survival predictions could be calculated based off of five characteristics at time of dementia diagnosis, including age, sex, comorbidity status, cognitive performance on the Mini Mental Status Examination, and type of dementia. According to the researchers, limitations included generalizability to other countries and lack of external validity. Additionally, other factors (e.g., living situation, number of medications) were not included in the tables and could have predictive value. Overall, the researchers hope that this tool can assist with shared decision-making and advanced care planning in individuals diagnosed with dementia.
References
Haaksma, M., Eriksdotter, M., Rizzuto, D., Leoutsakos, J., Rikkert, M., Melis, R., & Garcia-Ptacek, S. (2019). Survival time tool to guide care planning in people with dementia. Neurology, 94(5), e538–e548. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0000000000008745