Dementia risk and related factors among 65 years and older that admitted to family health centers in efeler region of Aydin

Aim There are only a few studies investigating dementia risk and related factors in our country. We aimed to investigate the dementia risk and related factors in subjects that are older than 65 years ego admitted to first line health services with any reason. Material and Method Our study is designed as a one centered sectional study. The study is established ton include the people older than 65 years admitted to Family Health Centers in Efeler region of Aydın. The sampling size is designated to have 450 subjects. The Family Health Centers included in the study were randomly selected as to be 6 urban and 2 rural. Geriatric Depression Scale (short form), Standardized Mini-mental Test, and face to face filled out survey forms questioning the socio-demographical characters, chronic diseases and related factors were applied to volunteer patients after their consent information were taken. Statistical analysis were done with SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) 18.0. In our study descriptive statistic methods were used. The suitability of normal distribution of data was tested by Shapiro-wilk test. Comparisons between groups were done by qi-square tests while logistic regression analyses were applied to significant nominal data. P values lower than 0.05 were accepted as significant. Results In our study totally 450 subjects that are older than 65 years were included. Of the participants, 209 (46.4%) were women and 241 (53.6%) were men. The mean age of the participants was 71.7±5.9. Dementia risk was detected in 11.6% (n=52) of 450 participants. Dementia risk was higher in the 75 years and older age group (p<0.001). ın the non-married group dementia risk was quiet high (p<0.001). Dementia risk was high in participants with education level of 8 or lower years (p<0.001). Among the daily activities, non-reading participants had higher dementia risk (p<0.05). The dementia risk was highly correlated with the difficulty levels of doing their daily instrumental activities (p=0.000). When dementia risk and the nutritional characteristics of the subjects were compared, we detected no significant relation except for olive oil consumption level and usage of oilseed (p<0.05). The dementia risk was high in patients with a diagnosis of cardiovascular disease (p<0.05). Participants using NSAID had lower dementia risk (p<0.05). On multiple regression analyses, being 75 years old or older, being unmarried and having an education level under 8 years were found to increase dementia risk by 2.359, 2.488 and 6.213 times, respectively. Conclusion Dementia risk especially increases in the 75 years and older group. In addition to this being unmarried and having an education level of under 8 years also cause significant increase in dementia risk. Primary care physicians should be careful about dementia risk as a part of their protective care services. The mental condition examination of the subjects in the determined increased risk groups should be included in the daily practice. Key words: Dementia risk, Mental State Examination, Over 65 years