Objective: Nowadays, there is a rapid increase of neurocognitive disorders (ND), while Alzheimer disease (AD), is the most frequent type of neurodegeneration. Therefore, Day Care Centers (DCC) and Memory Clinics (MC) have been created in order to correspond to the rising needs of people with ND. The aim of the study was to record clinical and demographic characteristics of people with ND from the broader area of Thessaloniki.
Subjects and methods: Data bases were collected and were analyzed in order to examine demographical characteristics of all visitors of the DCC of Alzheimer Hellas and of visitors of the Papanikolaou General Hospital, during the years 2007-2017. Six thousand and ninety six people (N=6.096) were totally classified as single visitors of the outpatients of MC of Papanikolaou General Hospital and of the DCC of Alzheimer Hellas.
Results: Among the total number of visitors, 3.078 people received the diagnosis of Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), whereas 3.018 people met the dementia diagnosis criteria. As far as the MCI group is concerned, the majority of them were women (72.1%) while the mean age of MCI group was M (SD)=67.73(9.21) years. Their mean education was M (SD)=10.65 (4.59) years, while their mean score in general cognitive performance (MMSE) was M (SD)=27.03(2.18) points and their score of general functional performance (FUCAS) was M (SD)=44.32(2.49). In regards to the dementia group, the majority of them were also women (63.8%) with a mean age M (SD)=76.08 (8.60) years and a mean education M (SD)=7.35 (4.41) years. The MMSE score of the group was M (SD)=17.79 (6.53) and the FUCAS score was M (SD)=63.25 (18.12). Moreover, the vast majority of dementia type was AD (53.1%).
Conclusion: Women are presented more frequently to primary care services and people with dementia have lower education and greater age. AD continues to be the most common type of dementia.