Living Alone with Dementia: Prevalence, Correlates and the Utilization of Health and Nursing Care Services

Abstract

Background: Little is known about the proportion and the characteristics of community-dwelling people with dementia (PWD) living alone in Germany.

Objectives: To analyze the prevalence of PWD living alone (with and without the support of an informal caregiver) and socio-demographical and clinical characteristics as well as health and nursing care utilization associated with living alone.

Methods: DelpHi-MV (Dementia: Life- and person-centered help in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania) is a general practitioner-based, randomized controlled intervention trial. The present analyses are based on baseline data of 511 patients (≥70 years, community-dwelling) who had screened positive for dementia (DemTect <9).

Results: N = 251 (51%) of the patients lived alone. PWD living alone were statistically significantly more often female, older, and more often widowed than those not living alone. About 9% of the patients (n = 24) were not supported by any informal caregiver. Regarding the clinical variables (cognitive and functional impairment, depression, falls, number of drug-related problems, malnutrition, quality of life), there were no statistically significant group differences. Patients living alone utilized professional services such as home care, help with medication, home-delivered meals, or housekeeping assistance significantly more often. Multivariate analyses confirmed these findings.

Conclusion: Our results reveal the high proportion of PWD living alone in Germany. PWD living alone did not seem to be at an increased health risk. Our findings indicate that living alone with dementia is possible. In order to ensure the sufficient provision of health and nursing care services for PWD living alone, providers should consider the present results for future planning.

Keywords: Ambulatory care; dementia; living arrangements; primary health care.

Figures

Fig.1

Flow of the study participants through each stage of the DelpHi-study.