Mortality and nursing home placement of dementia patients in rural and urban areas: a cohort study from the Swedish Dementia Registry

Rural-urban disparities of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias: A scoping review

The rising age of the global population has made Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD) a critical public health problem, with significant health-related disparities observed between rural and urban areas. However, no previous reviews have examined the scope and determinant factors contributing to rural-urban disparities of ADRD-related health outcomes. This study aims to systematically collate and synthesize peer-reviewed articles on rural-urban disparities in ADRD, identifying key determinants and research gaps to guide future research. We conducted a systematic search using key terms related to rural-urban disparities and ADRD without restrictions on geography or study design. Five search engines-MEDLINE, CINAHL, Web of Science, PubMed, and Scopus-were used to identify relevant articles. The search was performed on August 16, 2024, and included English-language articles published from 2000 onward. Sixty-three articles met the eligibility criteria for data extraction and synthesis. Most articles were published after 2010 (85.7%) and were concentrated in the United States, China, and Canada (66.7%). A majority had cross-sectional (58.7%) or cohort study designs (23.8%), primarily examining prevalence (41.3%) or incidence (11.1%). Findings often indicated a higher prevalence and incidence in rural areas, although inconsistent rural-urban classification systems were noted. Common risk factors included female sex, lower education level, lower income, and comorbidities such as diabetes and cerebrovascular diseases. Environmental (12.7%) and lifestyle (14.3%) factors for ADRD have been less explored. The statistical methods used were mainly traditional analyses (e.g., logistic regression) and lacked advanced techniques such as machine learning or causal inference methods. The gaps identified in this review emphasize the need for future research in underexplored geographic regions and encourage the use of advanced methods to investigate understudied factors contributing to ADRD disparities, such as environmental, lifestyle, and genetic influences.

Highlights

Few studies on rural-urban ADRD disparities focus on low- and middle-income countries.Common risk factors include female sex, low education attainment, low income, and comorbidities.Inconsistent definitions of "rural" complicate cross-country comparisons.Environmental and lifestyle factors affecting ADRD are underexplored.Advanced statistical methods, such as machine learning and causal inference, are recommended.

The Impact of Educational Attainment and Income on Long-Term Care for Persons with Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias: A Swedish Nationwide Study

BACKGROUND

Long-term care improves independence and quality of life of persons with dementia (PWD). The influence of socioeconomic status on access to long-term care was understudied.

OBJECTIVE

To explore the socioeconomic disparity in long-term care for PWD.

METHODS

This registry-based study included 14,786 PWD, registered in the Swedish registry for cognitive and dementia disorders (2014-2016). Education and income, two traditional socioeconomic indicators, were the main exposure. Outcomes were any kind of long-term care, specific types of long-term care (home care, institutional care), and the monthly average hours of home care. The association between outcomes and socioeconomic status was examined with zero-inflated negative binomial regression and binary logistic regression.

RESULTS

PWD with compulsory education had lower likelihood of receiving any kind of long-term care (OR 0.80, 95% CI 0.68-0.93), or home care (OR 0.83, 95% CI 0.70-0.97), compared to individuals with university degrees. Their monthly average hours of home care were 0.70 times (95% CI 0.59-0.82) lower than those of persons with university degrees. There was no significant association between education and the receipt of institutional care. Stratifying on persons with Alzheimer's disease showed significant association between lower education and any kind of long-term care, and between income and the hours of home care.

CONCLUSIONS

Socioeconomic inequalities in long-term care existed in this study population. Lower-educated PWD were less likely to acquire general long-term care, home care and had lower hours of home care, compared to their higher-educated counterparts. Income was not significantly associated with the receipt of long-term care.

A Scoping Literature Review of Rural Institutional Elder Care

Under circumstances of pervasive global aging combined with weakened traditional family elder care, an incremental demand for institutional elder care is generated. This has led to a surge in research regarding institutional elder care. Rural residents' institutional elder care is receiving more attention as a major theme in social sciences and humanities research. Based on 94 articles related to rural institutional elder care, this study identified the most influential articles, journals and countries in rural institutional elder care research since 1995. This was done using science mapping methods through a three-step workflow consisting of bibliometric retrieval, scoping analysis and qualitative discussion. Keywords revealed five research mainstreams in this field: (1) the cognition and mental state of aged populations, (2) the nursing quality and service supply of aged care institutions, (3) the aged care management systems' establishment and improvements, (4) the risk factors of admission and discharge of aged care institutions, and (5) deathbed matters regarding the aged population. A qualitative discussion is also provided for 39 urban and rural comparative research papers and 55 pure rural research papers, summarizing the current research progress status regarding institutional elder care systems in rural areas. Gaps within existing research are also identified to indicate future research trends (such as the multi-dimensional and in-depth comparative research on institutional elder care, new rural institutional elder care model and technology, and correlative policy planning and development), which provides a multi-disciplinary guide for future research.

Comparing the Clinical Characteristics and Mortality of Residential and Non-Residential Older People with COVID-19: Retrospective Observational Study

Nursing homes have accounted for a significant part of SARS-CoV-2 mortality, causing great social alarm. Using data collected from electronic medical records of 1,319,839 institutionalised and non-institutionalised persons ≥ 65 years, the present study investigated the epidemiology and differential characteristics between these two population groups. Our results showed that the form of presentation of the epidemic outbreak, as well as some risk factors, are different among the elderly institutionalised population with respect to those who are not. In addition to a twenty-fold increase in the rate of adjusted mortality among institutionalised individuals, the peak incidence was delayed by approximately three weeks. Having dementia was shown to be a risk factor for death, and, unlike the non-institutionalised group, neither obesity nor age were shown to be significantly associated with the risk of death among the institutionalised. These differential characteristics should be able to guide the actions to be taken by the health administration in the event of a similar infectious situation among institutionalised elderly people.

Influence of Education and Income on Receipt of Dementia Care in Sweden

OBJECTIVE

To explore the dementia diagnostic process and drug prescription for persons with dementia (PWD) with different socioeconomic status (SES).

DESIGN

Register-based cohort study.

SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS

This study included 74,414 PWD aged ≥65 years from the Swedish Dementia Register (2007-2018). Their data were linked with the Swedish Longitudinal Integrated Database for Health Insurance and Labor Market Studies (2006-2017) to acquire the SES information 1 year before dementia diagnosis.

METHODS

Education and income-2 traditional SES indicators-were divided into 5 levels. Outcomes comprised the dementia diagnostic examinations, types of dementia diagnosis, diagnostic unit, and prescription of antidementia drugs. Binary logistic regression was performed to evaluate socioeconomic inequalities.

RESULTS

Compared to PWD with the lowest educational level, PWD with the highest educational level had a higher probability of receiving the basic diagnostic workup [odds ratio (OR) 1.19, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.10-1.29], clock test (OR 1.12, 95% CI 1.02-1.24) and neuroimaging (OR 1.23, 95% CI 1.09-1.39). Compared with PWD in the lowest income quintile, PWD in the highest income quintile presented a higher chance of receiving the basic diagnostic workup (OR 1.35, 95% CI 1.26-1.46), clock test (OR 1.40, 95% CI 1.28-1.52), blood analysis (OR 1.21, 95% CI 1.06-1.39), Mini-Mental State Examination (OR 1.47, 95% CI 1.26-1.70), and neuroimaging (OR 1.30, 95% CI 1.18-1.44). PWD with higher education or income had a higher likelihood of obtaining a specified dementia diagnosis or being diagnosed at a memory clinic. SES presented no association with prescription of antidementia medication, except for the association between education and the use of memantine.

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS

Higher education or income was significantly associated with higher chance of receiving dementia diagnostic examinations, a specified dementia diagnosis, being diagnosed at a memory clinic, and using memantine. Socioeconomic inequalities in dementia diagnostic process and prescription of memantine occurred among PWD with different education or income levels.

Time from dementia diagnosis to nursing-home admission and death among persons with dementia: A multistate survival analysis

Objectives

To estimate transition times from dementia diagnosis to nursing-home (NH) admission or death and to examine whether sex, education, marital status, level of cognitive impairment and dementia aetiology are associated with transition times.

Design

Markov multistate survival analysis and flexible parametric models.

Setting

Participants were recruited from the Norwegian Registry of Persons Assessed for Cognitive Symptoms (NorCog) in specialist healthcare between 2008 and 2017 and followed until August 2019, a maximum of 10.6 years follow-up time (mean 4.4 years, SD 2.2). Participants’ address histories, emigration and vital status were retrieved from the National Population Registry from time of diagnosis and linked to NorCog clinical data.

Participants

2,938 home-dwelling persons with dementia, ages 40–97 years at time of diagnosis (mean 76.1, SD 8.5).

Results

During follow-up, 992 persons (34%) were admitted to nursing-homes (NHs) and 1,556 (53%) died. Approximately four years after diagnosis, the probability of living in a NH peaked at 19%; thereafter, the probability decreased due to mortality. Median elapsed time from dementia diagnosis to NH admission among those admitted to NHs was 2.28 years (IQR 2.32). The probability of NH admission was greater for women than men due to women´s lower mortality rate. Persons living alone, particularly men, had a higher probability of NH admission than cohabitants. Age, dementia aetiology and severity of cognitive impairment at time of diagnosis did not influence the probability of NH admission. Those with fewer than 10 years of education had a lower probability of NH admission than those with 10 years or more, and this was independent of the excess mortality in the less-educated group.

Conclusion

Four years after diagnosis, half of the participants still lived at home, while NH residency peaked at 19%. Those with fewer than 10 years of education were less often admitted to NH.

Basic Diagnostic Work-Up Is More Complete in Rural than in Urban Areas for Patients with Dementia: Results of a Swedish Dementia Registry Study

BACKGROUND

Life in rural areas differs from life in urban areas not only in geographical conditions, but also in health care structure.

OBJECTIVE

Our aim is to compare the diagnostic process and the management of dementia in rural and urban areas of Sweden.

METHODS

We performed a cross-sectional study of patients with dementia living in rural (n = 16,428), intermediate (n = 18,033), and urban (n = 23,680) areas in Sweden including patients registered from 2007 through 2014 in the Swedish Dementia Registry (SveDem). Descriptive statistics are shown. Odds ratios with 95% CI are presented for basic diagnostic examinations in rural compared to intermediate and urban areas, adjusted for age, sex, type of care (primary versus specialist), and comorbidities. Analyses were also stratified for diagnostic care unit (primary versus specialist).

RESULTS

Patients who lived in rural areas were more likely to receive a complete basic examination, MMSE examination, Clock test, blood analysis, and neuro-imaging, compared to patients living in urban areas, and also compared to patients living in intermediate areas. Sex differences were seen in nearly all domains, with men receiving more diagnostic work-up than women. Stratified analyses show that in primary care, the complete basic examination is less frequently performed in urban and intermediate areas compared to rural areas.

CONCLUSION

There are differences in diagnostic work-up for dementia between rural, intermediate, and urban areas in Sweden. These results should be considered in future healthcare decisions to ensure equality of health care across rural and urban areas.