Screening for Dementia and Prescription Style in Elderly Diabetic Patients Aged over 75 Years

Abstract

The support for observance of medication is important for elderly diabetic patients. We therefore investigated the relation between the score of screening for dementia by Urakami's method and the prescription style in 220 diabetic patients aged over 75 years. One dose packages which mean are associated with a simple and easy way to take medication were prescribed for 10 (14.9 %) of 67 patients in the suspected dementia group and 7 (4.6 %) of 153 patients in the normal range group (p=0.013). Adjusting the other clinical characteristics, we found a relationship between the score of screening for dementia and prescription style (odds ratio 4.61, 95 % confidence interval 1.32 - 16.15, p=0.017). Our findings suggest that screening for dementia will be useful to identify elderly diabetic patients in whom support for taking their medication is required.