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BMC Health Services Research
Published in: BMC Health Services Research 1/2016

Open Access 01-12-2016 | Research article

A systematic review of the quality of studies on dementia prevalence in Italy

Authors: Gianluca Bruti, Elisabetta Cavallucci, Michele Mancini, Alessandro Bitossi, Marzia Baldereschi, Sandro Sorbi

Published in: BMC Health Services Research | Issue 1/2016

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Abstract

Background

Dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD), is one of the most burdensome medical conditions. In order to better understand the epidemiology of dementia in Italy, we conducted a systematic search of studies published between 1980 and April 2014 investigating the prevalence of dementia and AD in Italy and then evaluated the quality of the selected studies.

Methods

A systematic search was performed using PubMed/Medline and Embase to identify Italian population-based studies on the prevalence of dementia among people aged ≥60 years. The quality of the studies was scored according to Alzheimer’s Disease International (ADI) criteria.

Results

Sixteen articles on the prevalence of dementia and AD in Italy were eligible and 75 % of them were published before the year 2000. Only one study was a national survey, whereas most of the studies were locally based (Northern Italy and Tuscany). Overall, the 16 studies were attributed a mean ADI quality score of 7.6 (median 7.75).

Conclusions

Available studies on the prevalence of dementia and AD in Italy are generally old, of weak quality, and do not include all regions of Italy. The important limitations of the few eligible studies included in our analysis, mostly related to their heterogeneous design, make our systematic review difficult to interpret from an epidemiologic point of view. Full implementation of a Dementia National Plan is highly needed to better understand the epidemiology of the disease and monitor dementia patients.
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Metadata
Title
A systematic review of the quality of studies on dementia prevalence in Italy
Authors
Gianluca Bruti
Elisabetta Cavallucci
Michele Mancini
Alessandro Bitossi
Marzia Baldereschi
Sandro Sorbi
Publication date
01-12-2016
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Health Services Research / Issue 1/2016
Electronic ISSN: 1472-6963
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-016-1741-7

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