Resources for people living with dementia now available

| 23 Nov 2020

A recent study at 3DN, UNSW Sydney with support from the Dementia Australia Research Foundation looked at the health needs and service use of people living with less common types of dementia in NSW.

A series of resources outlining the results and how this information can help people living with dementia is now available at https://www.3dn.unsw.edu.au/projects/using-big-data-understand-health-status-service-use-and-service-pathways-people-less-common-types-dementia.

There are resources for people living with dementia, care partners, and health professionals. Few studies that look at the health of people living in dementia include a focus on less common types of dementia such as frontotemporal dementia, dementia with lewy bodies, alcohol-related dementia, and dementia due to other conditions such as Parkinson’s disease and Huntington disease.

Our study looked at the health service use of people with less common types of dementia using a large de-identified dataset with information from health records in NSW. We found the most common reasons people with less common types of dementia went to hospital included health management and rehabilitation, injuries and poisoning, problems related to breathing, and neurological problems. We found that people living with less common types of dementia who go to hospital often have other health problems (e.g. high blood pressure, dehydration, and heart problems) that need to be managed. Finally, we found that the main reasons people living with less common types of dementia were delirium and mood disorders.

These findings can help ensure health services are prepared to meet the health needs of people living with less common types of dementia.

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