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Prevalence of dementia in nursing home and community-dwelling older adults in Germany

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Abstract

Background/aim

We compared the prevalence of dementia in nursing home residents and community-dwelling older adults .

Methods

Using health insurance claims data for the year 2009, we estimated the prevalence of at least three of four quarters with a diagnosis of dementia in persons aged ≥65 years.

Results

Of 213,694 persons aged 65+ years, 4,584 (2.2 %) lived in nursing homes. The prevalence of dementia was 51.8 % (95 % CI 50.4–53.3) in nursing home residents and 2.7 % (95 % CI 2.6–2.8) in community-dwelling elderly. Increasing prevalences with age were found in both sexes in community-dwelling elderly. These trends were not seen in nursing home residents where prevalences were already high for the age group 65–69 years (35.7 % in males and 40.9 % in females, respectively).

Conclusions

More than half of nursing home residents suffer from dementia, which is about 19-fold higher than the prevalence in insured living in the community.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the Gmünder ErsatzKasse (GEK, now BARMER GEK) for providing the data. This study was supported by grants from the Jackstädt-Stiftung. The funder had no role in the study design, or in the collection, analysis, interpretation or presentation of the information.

Conflict of interest

On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division Health Economics, Health Policy and Outcomes Research, Centre for Social Policy Research, University of Bremen, Postfach 33 04 40, 28334, Bremen, Germany

    Falk Hoffmann, Gerd Glaeske & Daniela Koller

  2. Institute of Primary Medical Care, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany

    Hanna Kaduszkiewicz & Hendrik van den Bussche

Authors
  1. Falk Hoffmann
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  2. Hanna Kaduszkiewicz
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  3. Gerd Glaeske
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  4. Hendrik van den Bussche
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  5. Daniela Koller
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Falk Hoffmann.

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Hoffmann, F., Kaduszkiewicz, H., Glaeske, G. et al. Prevalence of dementia in nursing home and community-dwelling older adults in Germany. Aging Clin Exp Res 26, 555–559 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-014-0210-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-014-0210-6

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