CFASII Dementia Diagnosis Study (CADDY)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Dementia undetected or undiagnosed in primary care: the prevalence, causes and consequences
IRAS ID
186510
Contact name
Clare Symms
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
South Norfolk Clinical Commissioning Group R&D team
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
07/MRE05/48, CFAS REC reference ; 4018, CFAS NIHR portfolio reference; TBC, CADDY UKCRN
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 6 months, 31 days
Research summary
About 700,000 people in England have dementia, but GPs report only 344,000 cases. A lot of resources are being put into trying to improve this diagnosis rate.
However, beyond a rough estimate of their number we do not know much about people with undiagnosed dementia. We don’t know whether more live alone, with family or in care homes, what symptoms they experience, or what care needs they have. We don’t know how many have made contact with their doctor and are waiting for a diagnosis.
This research project will describe the population with undiagnosed dementia, in particular the size of this group, and their demographics, health and the social circumstances compared to people with dementia who have been diagnosed.
We will do this using data from a group of people with dementia who were identified under the Cognitive Function and Ageing Study II. About 460 of the people found under the CFAS II study to have dementia also gave us permission to look at their medical records. These participants have already interviews and assessments under CFAS II. The CFAS II Dementia Diagnosis Study will now ask their GPs to extract from their primary care records details of dementia diagnosis, whether the GP noted any memory problems or referral to specialist dementia services.
From this we will estimate how many people with dementia have not sought help and how many had sought help but remained undiagnosed. We will describe the group with no formal clinical diagnosis of dementia and identify groups that are more likely to be undiagnosed. Finally we will explore the effect of being diagnosed on health care, mood, social participation and disability.
REC name
London - Bromley Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/LO/0667
Date of REC Opinion
29 Apr 2016
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion