Investigation of The Cause of Death in Inpatients with Dementia in Akitsu Konoike Hospital.

Abstract

The mortality rate of patients with dementia is known to be higher than that of the general population. Pneumonia is one of the most common causes of death in patients with dementia, and proper intervention is important for clinical outcomes. To date, it remains unclear whether there are differences in the risk factors of pneumonia among different types of dementia. Here, we investigated the primary cause of death in patients with dementia admitted at Akitsu Konoike Hospital. Furthermore, Cox regression analyses were performed to evaluate the risk factors associated with death by pneumonia among patients with Alzheimer's dementia (AD), vascular dementia (VaD), and other conditions. We found that pneumonia was one of the most common causes of death in all of the current samples. Additionally, poor outcomes were associated with the Barthel index in AD and aging or short disease duration in VaD. These results suggest that considering the diagnostic differences in death by pneumonia is important for clinical treatment of patients with dementia.