I Abdollahpour, M Noroozian, S Nedjat, R Majdzadeh,
Volume 7, Issue 2 (9-2011)
Abstract
Background & Objectives: Although it is important to study the association between caregiver burden and individual with dementia, a little has been paid attention to this issue in Iranian population therefore the aim of study was to investigate the frequency of psychiatric symptoms and patients with dementia and caregiver burden associated with individual with dementia.
Methods: In this study 84 patients who had referred to Iran Alzheimer’s Association, along with their caregivers were included in our study. Iranian Version of Caregiver Burden and NPI questionnaires were employed. Factors affecting factors on burden was analyzed by multivariate linear regression.
Results: Our findings showed that there was at least one psychiatric disorder in all patients. Among all psychiatric symptoms delusion and elation had the highest and lowest rates with 39.3 and 2.4 percentages, respectively. Linear regression indicated that “indifference” and “irritability” symptoms were the effective psychiatric symptoms on the amount of burden placed on the caregivers.
Conclusion: The symptom frequency of irritability and other symptoms showed a statistically significant positive correlation with caregiver's NPI-D score. These findings suggest that improvement of treatments for delusions, irritability among dementia patients may reduce caregiver burden.
Mohammad Zare, Zahra Tagharrobi, Khadijeh Sharifi, Zahra Sooki, Javad Abolhasani,
Volume 17, Issue 2 (9-2021)
Abstract
Background and Objectives: Valid, reliable, short, sensitive and accurate tool is needed to diagnose pain in dementia patients. This study aimed to determine the psychometric properties and diagnostic accuracy of short-form Persian version of Doloplus-2 (P-Doloshort) in pain assessment in elderly with dementia.
Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 100 elderly were selected using convenient sampling from private clinics and nursing homes in Kashan in 2018-19. Construct validity was determined by exploratory factor analysis, known-groups approach and convergent validity. Also, reliability was evaluated by internal consistency, equivalence, and stability. P-Doloplus-2 and P-Doloshort were used as the reference standard and the index test, respectively. Data were analyzed by SPSS-v16 using independent T-Test, linear regression, Pearson and intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC), Cronbach's alpha, ROC curve, and diagnostic test parameters.
Results: Factor analysis identified the tool as a single-factor; it was able to explain 65.851% of total variance. P-Doloshort was able to differentiate between two groups with and without painful underlying diseases (P<0.0001). There was a positive and significant correlation between P-Doloshort score with P-Doloplus-2 score (r=0.975, P<0.0001) and PACSLAC-II-IR score (r=0.0001, P<0.0001). Cronbach's alpha, ICC and standard error of measurement were 0.898, 0.891 and ±1.183, respectively. The relative frequency of minimum and maximum possible score was less than 15%. At the cut-off point of 2.5, area under ROC curve, sensitivity, specificity, and overall diagnostic accuracy were estimated 0.985, 0.956, 1.000 and 0.970, respectively.
Conclusion: P-Doloshort can be used as a valid, reliable, sensitive and accurate tool for pain assessment in elderly with dementia.
A Hosseinzadeh, Mr Baneshi, B Sedighi, J Kermanchi, Aa Haghdoost,
Volume 18, Issue 1 (5-2022)
Abstract
Background and Objectives: Dementia is a chronic disease that imposes a huge financial and social burden on the health system. Knowledge of the prevalence of dementia is essential for healthcare planning and ensuring that there is an adequate service for people with the condition. Considering that the prevalence and geographical variation of dementia are not well known in Iran, the present study was conducted to investigate the prevalence of dementia and its geographic variations in Iran.
Methods: In this study, the prevalence of dementia was estimated indirectly using the frequency of prescribed specialized medicines in one year by generic and brand names in each province. Choropleth maps were used to visually assess the geographical variation of dementia prevalence at the provincial level. Moran I and Getis-Ord Gi (Gi) geographical tests were used to investigate the spatial autocorrelation and geographical variability of dementia prevalence at a significant level of 0.05, respectively.
Results: In this study, the prevalence of dementia was 49.6 and 508.9 in 100000 in the general and over 60-year population, respectively. In the general population, the lowest prevalence was in Hormozgan Province (9.4/100000) and the highest prevalence was in East Azarbayjan Province (96.4/100000). In the over 60-year population, the lowest prevalence was in Hormozgan Province (141.5/100000) and the highest in Isfahan Province (862.5/1000000). According to Moran I and Getis-Ord Gi (Gi) tests, spatial autocorrelation and geographical variability of dementia prevalence were not significant.
Conclusion: The prevalence of dementia in the Iranian over 60-year population is lower compared to western countries; however, it is comparable with the reported dementia prevalence from developing countries. It should be noted that the dementia prevalence is high, similar to developed countries, in some developed provinces of Iran.
