Abstract
The present paper deals with the actual condition of 2341 (11.1%) aged patients diagnosed as having dementia out of 20729 aged patients hospitalized at 167 national medical institutes over the country. Out of the 2341 patients with dementia, 673 (3.2%) patients were not immobilized (hereaferreferred to as D group) and 1668 (8.0%) were immobilized (referred to as ID group). The average age of the patients with dementia, duration of their illness, and average hospitalized periods were 78.5 years, 4.9 years and 41.1 months respectively. Sixty-two percent of the demented patients were hospitalized at the department of internal medicine and 15% at the department of psychiatry. The reasons for the hospitalization of these patients were cerebrovascular disease (37%), followed by respiratory disease (14%) and dementia (10%). There were more patients with a past history of cerebrovascular disease in the ID group.Dementia manifested in at least 15% of the patients after hospitalization. There were more patients with more serious dementia in the ID group (p<0.01). In the ID group, the progression of dementia was associated with more serious immobilized condition (p<0.01). Patients with dementia ascribed to cerebrovascular disease were the largest in number. An analysis on these results is included in this study as well.
