Seniors with dementia living in care facilities tend to have multiple chronic illnesses

Seniors with dementia tend to have a few other chronic illnesses, which increases the frequency of hospitalizations and emergency department visits. As life expectancy increases, new strategies must be created to address the unique needs of the aging population. Authors of a new retrospective study analyzed data collected in 2012 from 30,112 home-care clients with dementia in Ontario. Out of those patients, 89% had two or more chronic conditions, and 35% had five or more. Patients with more than two multi-morbidities were significantly more likely to be hospitalized than seniors with only the dementia diagnosis.

Authors:

Luke Mondor, Colleen J. Maxwell , David B. Hogan, Susan E. Bronskill, Andrea Gruneir, Natasha E. Lane, Walter P. Wodchis

Corresponding author:

Colleen Maxwell, Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, Toronto, Email: colleen.maxwell@uwaterloo.ca

Original paper published in PLOS Medicine on March 7, 2017.