A Cross-sectional Investigation Of The Health Service Condition For Patients With Dementia In Sanatorium For Retired Cadres

Objective With the aging of Troops’ retired cadres,made this group ahigher risk of dementia. The dementia caregivers’ service level directly relates tothe quality of the dementia patients’ life. Therefore, this article research of thecaregivers. To evaluate current health service condition of veteran cadres withdementia through a face to face interview and questionnaire survey to theircaregivers, and then to provide evidence to increase their treatment rate and toimprove their daily care.Methods Stratified cluster sampling methods was used to investigateretired veteran cadres above80yrs old who lived in sanatorium for retired cadresin Beijing and nearby from2009.12to2011.07. For patients clinically diagnosedwith dementia, a face to face interview and questionnaire survey were conductedto their caregivers individually which include basic social demographic data(gender, age, educational background and so on), the awareness rate of patientsdementia diagnosis, the understanding degree to relative information of dementia,the rate of treatment and the percentage of taking medications. All data wasanalyzed by SPSS18.0. Enumeration data was expressed by percentage of thetotal volume. x2test, non conditional logistic regression analysis were conductedrespectively. P＜0.05means statistical significance.Results A total of118caregivers were investigated individually. Toveteran cadres who was diagnosed with dementia, the awareness rate of dementiadiagnosis of their sanitarian and caregivers were34.75%and32.2%respectively.No statistically significant difference was found between sanitarian and caregivers.Age, gender and level of education have no significant influence on the awarenessrate of dementia diagnosis in caregivers. The rate of medical treatment was50.8%in all dementia patients investigated and the first line medications as acetylcholinesterase inhibitors and/or memantine were take by17.8%patients.Caregivers were main investigated objects in this study, and the percentage ofdiscriminate attitude to dementia patients was fund in6.8%in them. Their attitudeto dementia was not interfered by their gender, age and the level of education.98.3%caregivers believe that dementia patients should be tolerated. In addition,we found that the level of caregivers understanding to dementia is relatively lowand their level of background education wasn’t positively related to theirunderstanding to dementia.Conclusion The awareness rate of dementia diagnosis of theveteran cadres’ caregivers and their sanitarian were low in sanatorium for retiredcadres, and the awareness rate of sanitarians wasn’t significantly higher thancaregivers as expected. The higher the level of education doesn’t mean the higherawareness rate of dementia diagnosis. In veteran cadres, the treatment rate ofdementia is low, and their caregivers’ understanding level to relative informationis low. The results of this study suggest the cadres’ health care system shouldenhance the popularity and education of the knowledge and skills.