Medical comorbidity in elderly patients with dementia. Differences according age and gender

Background. Prevalence of dementia in elderly patients is high. The goal of the study was to assess some aspects of comorbidity in the patients with dementia. We also analyzed comorbidity differences according to age and gender. Patients and methods. A total of 311 patients older than 64 years old with dementia were prospectively evaluated. Data were collected on sociodemographic endpoints, type of dementia, Barthel Index (BI), Lawton Index (LO), Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), Charlson Index, total number of drugs, history of high blood pressure (HT), diabetes (DM), dyslipidemia (DL), heart failure (HF), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and cancer. Results. The sample consisted of 222 women (71.4%) and 89 men. Mean age (standard deviation [SDI) was 80.6 (6) years. Patients were taking an average of 5.8 (2.6) drugs. The mean of Charlson Index was of 2.1 (1.3). Fifty-one percent had HT, 24% DM, 24% DL, 13% HF, 11% COPD and 8% cancer. We found better scores in the MMSE, higher comorbidity and percentage of married people and prevalence of vascular dementia in men with respect to women, who had higher percentage of Alzheimer disease, and widowers. When differences were analyzed according to age, we found a higher percentage of widowers and HF diagnosis, a lower LI values and DL percentage in the patients older than 84 years with respect to younger subjects. Conclusions. Our results showed the presence of high comorbidity and chronic drugs prescription in elderly people with dementia. There are some differences in comorbidity according to age and gender that must be taken into account.