Diagnosing dementia in ‘oldest-old’
Dr Melissa Slavin claims there is limited data on the methods clinicians use to diagnose dementia in elderly people. To uncover the best practice in dementia diagnosis, she begins research into diagnosing the degenerative brain condition in the ‘oldest-old’. According to the researcher at Dementia Collaborative Research Centres, diagnosis of dementia hinges on assessment of cognition and function.
Dr Melissa Slavin claims there is limited data on the methods clinicians use to diagnose dementia in elderly people. To uncover the best practice in dementia diagnosis, she begins research into diagnosing the degenerative brain condition in the ‘oldest-old’.
According to the researcher at Dementia Collaborative Research Centres, diagnosis of dementia hinges on assessment of cognition and function.
The project proposes to investigate both cognition and function in the oldest-old to develop a better understanding of the range of abilities, and investigate whether recommendations for diagnosing dementia in the oldest-old can be devised.
“We need to uncover how clinicians are actually going about diagnosing dementia in this group. The more traditional way to diagnose this is to improve memory tests, but there is not much data on this,” Dr Slavin tells DPS News.
Describing it as a “little bit of a mystery”, Dr Slavin says understanding how clinicians diagnose dementia will become even more important as people aged 90 to 95 years are among the fastest growing age group.
With the goal to validate whether what clinicians have been doing or thinking in the diagnosis process is the “right approach”, Dr Slavin says if they are successful in gaining external funding, they will be able to collect additional data to increase the sample size, especially in the 90 to 95 years old age group
If you are a medical health professional or an aged care worker, and wish to participate in this study, contact Dr Melissa Slavin on m.slavin@unsw.edu.au.
