gms | German Medical Science

17. Deutscher Kongress für Versorgungsforschung

Deutsches Netzwerk Versorgungsforschung e. V.

10. - 12.10.2018, Berlin

Social health and associated factors for people screened positive in dementia in primary care

Meeting Abstract

  • Fanny Schumacher-Schönert - Deutsches Zentrum für Neurodegenerative Erkrankungen (DZNE) e.V., Standort Rostock/Greifswald, Greifswald
  • René Thyrian - Deutsches Zentrum für Neurodegenerative Erkrankungen (DZNE) e.V., Standort Rostock/Greifswald, Interventionelle Versorgungsforschung, Greifswald
  • Wolfgang Hoffmann - Deutsches Zentrum für Neurodegenerative Erkrankungen (DZNE) e.V., Standort Rostock/Greifswald, Translationale Versorgungsforschung, Greifswald

17. Deutscher Kongress für Versorgungsforschung (DKVF). Berlin, 10.-12.10.2018. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2018. Doc18dkvf328

doi: 10.3205/18dkvf328, urn:nbn:de:0183-18dkvf3282

Published: October 12, 2018

© 2018 Schumacher-Schönert et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. See license information at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.


Outline

Text

Background: Dementia is associated with difficulties in maintaining social relationships. The importance of social consequences of dementia have to receive as much attention as the cognitive consequences. Additional it is important to focus on how to deal with these social consequences to optimize quality of life for people with dementia (PwD) [1]. There is only one concept of personhood (being a person in relation to others) which emphasizes the importance of social participation for people with dementia introduced by Kitwood & Bredin in 1992 and Sabat, 2001 [2], [3].

Question: The concept of social health is not operationalized for dementia, although its three dimensions appear relevant for the social health of people with dementia in light of the difficulties they encounter in everyday life [4]. Our topic focuses especially the social inclusion of cognitively impaired people, stratified by gender and dementia severity in the context of the DelpHi-MV study.

Method: The analyses are based on cross-sectional data of the general practitioner-based, randomized, controlled intervention trial DelpHi-MV (Dementia: life- and person-centered help). 6,838 patients were screened for dementia in 136 GP practices; 17.1% were screened positive, 54.4% of those agreed to participate and cross-sectional data could be solicited in n?=?516 subjects. Among other things we assessed age, sex, living situation and the cognitive status [5]. Social support was assessed using the “Fragebogen zur sozialen Unterstützung (FSozU)” a psychometric sound questionnaire with 22 items in short form. We conducted descriptive analysis stratified by dementia severity and also gender, and fitted a multivariable regression model.

Expected Results and Conclusions: We expect that there is a specific coherence between the degree of social inclusion for PwD and their assessed dementia severity. Moreover, we expect a positive influence of a social wellbeing on the dementia severity and enclosed systematic differences between the gender and dementia severity with respect to the social inclusion of PwD.

Discussion: Research has consistently shown that social isolation and loneliness are related to negative health outcomes and that social support of various types and from various sources is associated with positive health outcomes [6], [7], [8], [9], [10]. It is a challenge to assess the importance and necessity of fostering social inclusion for PwD further to the need of social support by their caregivers. In this study we test the assumption that PwD need to be part of a functional social network.

Practical Implications: Our analyses contribute quantitative evidence on social support in dementia, raise awareness of the social dimension in wellbeing of PwD and give helpful hints on factors that could serve as targets for intervention.


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