Objective: To determine the prevalence of dementia in persons living with Parkinson’s disease in a door to door survey.

Background: Research suggests that up to 31% of patients with PD have dementia. As part of an ongoing study on Parkinson’s disease, we aim to determine the prevalence of (Parkinson’s disease with Dementia) PDD in a community survey done as part of a larger and ongoing study on Parkinson’s disease.

Method: TrapCaf is an ongoing project on Parkinson’s disease and aims at looking at multiple facets of the disease. It is conducted within a rural district called Hai in Kilimanjaro, Northern Tanzania. As part of the assessment a the IDEA screen, a tool validated for assessing cognitive impairment in East  Africa, was used to screen for dementia in people diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. Screening for patients was done with a door to door survey looking for people with any movement disorders and/or tremors and the clinical diagnosis was made by a neurologist in a nearby tertiary hospital. Prevalence of probable and possible dementia was determined using the IDEA screen score of seven or less and eight to nine respectively.

Results: Among 21 patients that were screened with clinical Parkinson’s disease four patients with probable dementia (IDEA score of seven or less) and 3 patients with possible dementia (IDEA score of 8 and 9). There was no correlation between IDEA screen scores and UPDRS motor and non motor scales and Howen and Yahr. Younger patients below the age of 60 had on average higher scores (mean score of 12.6) on the IDEA screen compared to patients above the age 60 (mean score of 9).

Conclusion: Patients been diagnosed with PD should be screened cognitive impairment using tools validated in their respective settings as it helps inform multidisciplinary teams on better ways to manage these patients. Moreover, validation of an existing tool such as the IDEA screen is needed for use in diagnosing Parkinson’s disease dementia in clinical settings.

References: 1. Gray WK, Paddick SM, Kisoli A, Dotchin CL, Longdon AR, Chaote P, et al. Development and validation of the identification and Intervention for Dementia in Elderly Africans (IDEA) study dementia screening instrument. J Geriatr Psychiatry Neurol. 2014;27(2):110–8. doi: 10.1177/2F0891988714522695.

2. Aarsland D, Zaccai J, Brayne C. A systematic review of prevalence studies of dementia in Parkinson’s disease. Mov Disord. 2005 Oct;20(10):1255-63. doi: 10.1002/mds.20527. PMID: 16041803.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/the-prevalence-of-parkinsons-disease-with-dementia-in-a-door-to-door-survey-done-in-a-rural-district-in-hai-kilimanjaro/