Clinical and epidemiological characteristics in Seychelles patients diagnosed with dementia

Background: dementia has now become a major cause of death, leading to disability and dependence. Objective: to characterize clinical and epidemiological variables in patients with dementia in Seychelles, from July 2018 to August 2019. Methods: an observational, descriptive, longitudinal study was performed in a universe of 257 patients treated at the dementia clinic of Victoria Hospital, Seychelles, in the time period stated above. The variables evaluated included: age group, sex, associated risk factors, type of dementia, marital status and educational level. For the clinical evaluation and diagnosis of dementia, Mini-Cog, Lawton and Brody tests and the Katz Independence Index were used. The data were analyzed according to descriptive statistics. Results: 47.08 % of the universe was diagnosed with dementia, the mean age was 78.61 years. Those aged 80 and over represented 58.68 % and marked female predominance (61.98 %). Sedentarism (84.30 %), high blood pressure (69.42 %) and alcohol intake (65.28 %) as associated risk factors and vascular dementia (39.66 %) and Alzheimer’s disease (38.01 %) were more frequent. Primary education predominated (52.07 %). Married (35.54 %) and widowed as marital status prevailed (32.23 %). Conclusions: clinical and epidemiological variables were characterized in Seychelles patients with dementia, which generally resemble those reported in the international literature.