ArticleDementia & neuropsychologia
Tertiary center referral delay of patients with dementia in Southern Brazil: associated factors and potential solutions.
Article in Dementia & neuropsychologia. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Healthcare Service Utilisation of People Living With Non-Alzheimer's Dementia: A Systematic Review.Journal of geriatric psychiatry and neurology · 2026Pooled it
- The landscape of dementia research, diagnosis, treatment, and care in Latin America.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Review
- Anticholinergic burden and polypharmacy in patients referred from primary care to tertiary dementia centers in Brazil.Dementia & neuropsychologia · 2025Article
- Retrospective analysis of 1,203 cases of referral to a quaternary vascular surgery outpatient clinic within the Unified Health System, São Paulo, Brazil.Einstein (Sao Paulo, Brazil) · 2024Article
- Disparity in the use of Alzheimer's disease treatment in Southern Brazil.Scientific reports · 2023Review
- Referral patterns and diagnostic outcomes in an outpatient Australian tertiary cognitive neurology service: 2009-2019.Alzheimer's & dementia (Amsterdam, Netherlands)Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
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Abstract
Early dementia diagnosis has many benefits and is a priority. In Brazil, most cases are diagnosed by a specialist.
objectiveWe aimed to study the average time from disease onset to specialist assessment and related factors; we also propose potential strategies to deal with this delay.
methodsThis was a cross-sectional database study in 245 patients with dementia from an outpatient clinic in a tertiary university hospital in Southern Brazil, which only assesses individuals from the Unified Health System (SUS). The outcome was time from symptoms onset to specialist assessment, reported by the informants. Individuals were separated into two groups: less and more than 1 year to specialist assessment. Multivariable analysis was used to test the potential related factors associated with delayed specialist assessment.
resultsMean±SD of time from symptoms onset to specialist assessment was 3.3±3.3 years. In the unadjusted analysis, individuals who were assessed before 1 year were more often diagnosed with vascular dementia, had more sudden and subacute onset, neuropsychiatric symptoms at presentation, rapid progression, and alcohol and antipsychotics use (p<0.05). In multivariate analysis, the effects of personality changes and onset presentation persisted, even when controlling for other variables.
conclusionWe found a long time from disease onset to specialist assessment, and those with personality changes and faster presentation were referred earlier. Improving the diagnostic capability of general practitioners, mass educational campaigns and transmission of knowledge by experts are some potential strategies to deal with delay of dementia diagnosis.
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