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The status of current clinical practice in diagnosis of young onset dementia in England: Findings from The Angela Project
Author(s) -
Carter Janet,
O'Malley Mary,
Campbell Jackie,
Stamou Vasileios,
La Fontaine Jenny H.,
Oyebode Jan,
Parkes Jacqueline
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
alzheimer's and dementia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.713
H-Index - 118
eISSN - 1552-5279
pISSN - 1552-5260
DOI - 10.1002/alz.043465
Subject(s) - gold standard (test) , audit , dementia , nice , medicine , best practice , delphi method , presentation (obstetrics) , psychological intervention , delphi , clinical practice , family medicine , pediatrics , psychiatry , accounting , surgery , political science , disease , business , statistics , mathematics , pathology , computer science , law , programming language , operating system
Background The presentation of dementia in young people is complex and challenging, often resulting in delays in receiving a confirmed diagnosis and appropriate support. A recent Delphi consensus has derived minimum and gold standards for the diagnostic workup that international expert clinicians consider best practice. This presentation will review the results of a large case note audit that assessed compliance with these standards in current UK clinical practice. Method 403 patient records of young people who received a diagnosis of dementia in the last 5 years were audited according to our minimum and gold standards. Records were obtained from memory services within eight different National Health Service locations from across England. Result We found significant differences between the sites in meeting the standards, though all sites had median scores that were below 50% compliance for both the minimum and gold standard. This suggests that current UK assessments fail to reach an acceptable standard. Conclusion Further consultation with clinicians and young people with dementia is necessary to understand local impediments to meeting an acceptable standard and to identify interventions that can lead to improvement.