 Patients' diagnosis decisions in Alzheimer's disease: The influence of family factorsSocial Science & Medicine, 2014, vol. 118, issue C, 9-16 Abstract: It is surprising to observe that the number of patients receiving a late diagnosis for Alzheimer's disease (AD) remains high even in countries promoting early diagnosis campaigns. We explore the impact of family history and family support on the risks of receiving a delayed diagnosis. We use French data of 1131 patients diagnosed between 1991 and 2005. We find that the presence of AD history in the family increased the risks of receiving a delayed diagnosis. This was true especially when AD history involved brothers, sisters and other relatives (uncles or cousins). The presence of an informal caregiver at the time of the first warning signs reduced the risks of receiving a late diagnosis, regardless of the informal caregiver concerned (spouse, son, daughter etc.). We identify several opportunities for early detection campaigns. Families with history of disease should be targeted. Campaigns should also target isolated patients, who do not benefit from informal care. Our results underline the importance of improving the diagnosis access for old patients and for men. Keywords: France; Diagnosis; Information; Informal care (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:118:y:2014:i:c:p:9-16 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.07.052 Access Statistics for this article Social Science & Medicine is currently edited by Ichiro (I.) Kawachi and S.V. (S.V.) Subramanian More articles in Social Science & Medicine from Elsevier |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.