Is your doctor ready with EXACT PROTOCOLS to prevent your likely dementia? Or are you giving them a pass on their incompetency?
Your chances of getting dementia.
1. A documented 33% dementia chance post-stroke from an Australian study? May 2012.
2. Then this study came out and seems to have a range from 17-66%. December 2013.
3. A 20% chance in this research. July 2013.
4. Dementia Risk Doubled in Patients Following Stroke September 2018
5. Parkinson’s Disease May Have Link to Stroke March 2017
The latest here:
Avalanche of Alzheimer's Cases: Are We Ready?
— Baby boomers turn 74 this year, and Alzheimer's prevalence keeps climbing
While 82% of primary care physicians said they're on the front lines of providing dementia care, not all are confident about caring for these patients, a survey commissioned by the association reported. Nearly 40% said they were never or sometimes comfortable making an Alzheimer's or dementia diagnosis and 27% said they were never or sometimes comfortable answering patients' questions about the disorders.
The survey findings were included as part of the annual facts and figures report published in Alzheimer's & Dementia, the journal of the Alzheimer's Association.
"Importantly, 50% of primary care physicians told us that the medical community as a whole is not ready to deal with the increase they're expected to see in people with dementia between now and 2050," said Keith Fargo, PhD, Alzheimer's Association director of scientific programs.
These perspectives raise an alarm about current and future dementia care, Fargo told MedPage Today. Currently, an estimated 5.8 million Americans age 65 or older have Alzheimer's dementia; 80% of these people are 75 and older. "The baby boom generation has already begun to reach age 65 and beyond; in fact, the oldest members of the baby boom generation turn age 74 in 2020," Fargo said.
In the next 5 years, the number of people 65 and older with Alzheimer's dementia is projected to reach 7.1 million, a 22% jump. Without breakthroughs to prevent or cure Alzheimer's, that figure is estimated to climb to 13.8 million by 2050.
Death certificates recorded 122,019 deaths from Alzheimer's disease in 2018, making it the sixth leading cause of death in the U.S. and the fifth leading cause of death among Americans 65 and older, Fargo noted. From 2000 through 2018, deaths resulting from stroke, HIV, and heart disease decreased, but reported deaths from Alzheimer's increased 146.2%.
The Alzheimer's Association survey, conducted by Versta Research in December 2019, included 1,000 primary care physicians balanced by age, gender, years in practice, type of practice, specialty, and region to match the total U.S. population. These doctors had been in practice for at least 2 years, spent at least 50% of their time in direct patient care, and had a practice in which at least 10% of their patients were 65 or older. In addition, the researchers surveyed 200 primary care doctors who had completed their residency in the past 2 years and 202 residents in general, family, or internal medicine.
About 32% of physicians said they referred dementia patients to specialists at least once a month, but 55% -- ranging from 44% of primary care doctors in large cities to 71% in rural areas -- said there were not enough dementia care specialists in their area to meet patient demand.
The report included a state-by-state analysis of geriatricians needed to meet future care needs for dementia patients and revealed severe shortages in some areas, including 14 states that need to increase the number of practicing geriatricians five-fold. As of 2016, there were 7,293 certified geriatricians in the U.S., placing an increasing burden on primary care physicians to provide dementia care, the report concluded.
Giving primary care doctors more training could help, but education needs to be accessible, Fargo pointed out: while 58% of primary care doctors said the quality of existing training options is either "good" or "excellent," 31% said training was difficult to access and 51% said there are too few options. Overall, 89% of primary care doctors reported staying current on medical developments, but 42% of those said "only a little."
"This is the voice of primary care physicians speaking," Fargo said. "It's them telling us 'We don't think the medical profession is ready.' It's a bit of a wake-up call to the medical community and people who can help them -- such as policymakers -- that there's a problem here and it's getting bigger."
Primary Source
Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association
No comments:
Post a Comment