Differences in diagnosis of Lewy body dementia in three English regions
Our analysis showed that there are regional differences in the diagnosis of Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB) in the UK. The North East had higher rates of diagnosis than London and the South East.
This study included 935 people who had taken part in DETERMIND across memory clinics from three different areas:
North East England
South East England
London
The core clinical features of DLB are; parkinsonism, rapid eye movement (REM) Sleep behaviour disorder (RBD), cognitive fluctuations and visual hallucinations. This study investigated the relationship between these features and the memory service diagnosis of DLB.
The findings showed:
11% of participants in the North East had DLB diagnosis compared to 4% of participants from London and the South East.
Diagnosis in the North East was associated with all core clinical features of DLB, whereas diagnosis in London and the South East was heavily associated with visual hallucinations.
Evidence suggests stronger recognition of DLB diagnostic features in the North East rather than a stronger prevalence of DLB.
Disparities may reflect different clinical practices.
There is potentially a higher awareness of DLB and more DLB training in the North East due to this area being historically involved in research on this type of dementia. Improving awareness of non-hallucination features of DLB and routinely using a standardised DLB Assessment Toolkit could help to reduce this regional disparity.
To find out more read the full article online here: https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/16/7/e121991
If you would like a printed copy of this summary or of the full article, or to receive it in a different format, please email ben.hicks@nottingham.ac.uk.