Under Reporting of Dementia Deaths on Death Certificates: A Systematic Review of Population-based Cohort Studies
- 4 June 2014
- journal article
- review article
- Published by IOS Press in Journal of Alzheimer's Disease
- Vol. 41 (1), 213-221
- https://doi.org/10.3233/JAD-132765
Abstract
The purpose of this review is to assess the extent to which dementia is omitted as a cause of death from the death certificates of patients with dementia. A systematic literature search was performed to identify population-based cohort studies in which all participants were examined or screened for symptoms of dementia with a validated instrument followed by confirmation of any suspected cases with a clinical examination (two-phase investigation). Data were extracted in a standardized manner and assessed through the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) initiative. Seven studies met the selection criteria. These were from the Americas (5 articles: 2 from Canada, 2 from the US, and 1 from Brazil) and Europe (2 articles: 1 from the UK and 1 from Spain). Each met at least 83% of the STROBE criteria. The reporting of dementia on death certificates was poor in these 7 studies, ranging from 7.2%-41.8%. Respiratory or circulatory-related problems were the most frequently reported causes of death among people who were demented but who were not reported as demented on death certificates. The use of death certificates for studying dementia grossly underestimates the occurrence of dementia in the population. The poor reporting of dementia on these certificates suggests a lack of awareness of the importance of dementia as a cause of death among medical personnel. There is an urgent need to provide better education on the importance of codification of dementia on death certificates in order to minimize errors in epidemiological studies on dementia.Keywords
This publication has 10 references indexed in Scilit:
- Under Reporting of Dementia Deaths on Death Certificates using Data from A Population-Based Study (NEDICES)Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, 2014
- Population-based case–control study of cognitive function in early Parkinson's disease (NEDICES)Journal of the Neurological Sciences, 2011
- Dementia-Associated Mortality at Thirteen Years in the NEDICES Cohort StudyJournal of Alzheimer's Disease, 2011
- Mortality from Parkinson's disease: A population‐based prospective study (NEDICES)Movement Disorders, 2011
- Measures of Interrater AgreementJournal of Thoracic Oncology, 2011
- Consistency of Clinical Diagnosis of Dementia in NEDICES: A Population-Based Longitudinal Study in SpainJournal of Geriatric Psychiatry and Neurology, 2009
- Incidence and subtypes of dementia in three elderly populations of central SpainJournal of the Neurological Sciences, 2008
- Underlying Cause of Death in Demented and Non-Demented Elderly CanadiansNeuroepidemiology, 2005
- Mortality from dementia in a community‐dwelling Brazilian populationInternational Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 2005
- Reporting of Dementia on Death Certificates: A Community StudyJournal of the American Geriatrics Society, 1999