| Objective:1. To study the prevalence of dementia in people over 65 years old and related dangerous influence in Gushan Town2. To study the burden on dementia patient caregivers and related influencing elementsMethods:1. Made general survey on people over 65 years old in 22 villages of Gushan town for dementia prevalence from July 2007 to Nov. 2007. The study consisted a screening stage, in which each subject was interviewed face to face with mini-mental state examination, and a clinical assessment stage, in which a series of neuropsychological examination was done on selected subjects based on the screening test results. The clinical diagnosis of dementia was made according to the Diagnosis and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder Fourth Edition.2. Study primary family caregivers'general conditions, their understandings on dementia and nursing requirement using self-designed questionnaires. Use CBI to study burden on caregivers.3. Analyze dementia prevalence and its dangerous influences and dementia patient primary caregivers'burden through statistic methods, such as descriptive statistics, chi-square test, logistic regression and linear regression.Results:1. Prevalence of dementia in rural aged people in Gushan town is 7.3% .2. The prevalence rate went up as people got older. Prevalence of dementia in males is 5.1%, lower than in females, which is 8.9%. Prevalence of dementia in illiteracy is 9.17%, highest in all education levels, followed by 5.21% of primary school education, 3.89% of junior high education, and 2.5% of senior high school. The result showed as education level went high, the prevalence of dementia went down. And the prevalence of dementia is different for different marriage status: for married people, it's 5.84%, for unmarried people is 9.48%.3.Single factor analysis and logistic regression analysis shown age, ADL>border point, monthly income, religious activity, TV/movie, poke/majiang/tress games, gardening and raising animals are influencing factors for dementia.4.Among the 152 caregivers, 40.79% were males, 59.21% were females; 65.13% received primary school education or below, 34.87% received middle school education or above; 49.34% were sons or daughters, 33.24% were spouses, 13.87% were daughter in law, 4.6% were of different relations.5.30.9% of the caregivers thought they were healthy enough to take care of the dementia patient, 71% felt tired after taking responsibility of the dementia patient, 19.9% caregivers thought they devoted all their energy to look after the dementia patient. 25% felt after nursing dementia patients, their own health condition went down.6.Linear regression analysis shown, those who took care of disabled dementia patients, who took care of higher ADL scores patients,who attended on without professional helper, who have insufficient knowledge, who are reluctant to give care, and who spend much time on it are easy to feel the burden.Conclusions1.Prevalence of dementia in rural aged people in Gushan town is 7.3%, in accordance with domestic and international reports. Dementia occurrence vary with patient's age, gender, education level, marriage status and monthly income.Participation regular in social activities, watching TV/movie/field show, playing poker or tress, planting flowers or raising small animals help to reduce or postpone dementia.2.Among caregivers of dementia patients, females are more than males; sons, daughters and spouse are the primary caregivers. The overall caregiver education level is low, and the caregivers don't have enough knowledge on dementia care and can't give enough service to the patient.3.Research inspiration:we should encourage old people to enrich their spiritual life, cultivate hobbies, exert their special talents and propagate dementia related knowledge, enhance health education, improve social understanding on dementia, so as to prevent and diagnose dementia in its preliminary stage, reduce dementia, and release family and social burdens.
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