A study of patients living in institutes may bias the findings

BMJ 1995;311:126 (8 July)

Letters

A study of patients living in institutes may bias the findings

EDITOR,--Alewijn Ott and colleagues report their estimates ofthe prevalence of dementia in a suburb of Rotterdam and statethat the fact that 27% of the potential population was unscreenedwas likely to lead to an underestimate of the rates.¹ This fails,however, to account for the bias of living in an institution.

Altogether 8% of the total population, a high rate for the cutoff age of 55, was living in an institution, but all those ininstitutions were included in the authors' screened sample--arate of 12%. Since the authors state that many of the subjectswith dementia were living in an institution the true prevalenceis likely to be lower than their estimate. Unfortunately, theydetail neither the number in institutions considered to be dementednor the quality of the diagnostic work up that this sizeablesubgroup had. It is also unclear whether this part of Rotterdam. . . [Full text of this article]

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Relevant Article

Prevalence of Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia: association with education. The Rotterdam study: Alewijn Ott, Monique M B Breteler, Frans van Harskamp, Jules J Claus, Tischa J M van der Cammen, Diederick E Grobbee, and Albert Hofman
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