67th Annual Scientific Meeting "Making Connections: From Cells to Societies"

Session 685 (Symposium)Conference Theme: Making Connections: From Cells to SocietiesThis journal suppl. entitled: 2014 GSA Annual Scientific Meeting AbstractsDelays in seeking professional help are common in people with dementia. Identifying characteristics of early help-seekers would inform public awareness strategies. Methods: Casenote review of people seeking help from a low-barrier, territory-wide professional assessment service available since 2006 in Hong Kong. Findings: A total of 497 casenote records were reviewed (67% female; age 75.5 ± 8.8 years). People waited on average 18.4 months (median, 14 months; range, 1-84 months) since first notice of symptoms before seeking assessment. Among help-seekers who were assessed as having probable dementia, a multiple regression model (R2=.39, F(15,87)=3.77, p<.01) showed that earlier help-seekers had more symptoms observed by caregiver (p=.03), higher MMSE score (p<.01), were older (p<.01), and had better IADL (p=.02); subjective complaints of the person were unrelated (p=.56); severity on different clinical domains predicted delays differentially. Implications: The number of symptoms observed by caregivers predicted earlier help-seeking, which is associated with milder disease.link_to_OA_fulltex