The Dementia Prevalence Calculator presents an opportunity for all health communities to gain a better understanding of their local estimated prevalence of dementia in the community, and among people living in local care homes.
The tool enables General Practices and Commissioners to establish a baseline by which to set and work toward local quantified ambitions for improvement in diagnosis rates, as set out in NHS Mandate 2012, and inform local joint strategic planning, commissioning, and service redesign and improvement.
Download Introduction to the Dementia Prevalence Calculator
What it does
Using Dementia UK (2007) figures for prevalence of dementia, the tool,
- applies these figures to a General Practice’s registered patient population, by age and by gender;
- in order to estimate local prevalence, the tool distinguishes between the patient population in the community, and those patients living in care homes;
- it considers prevalence at different phases of the disease (mild, moderate, severe), and by age group;
- it compares numbers on dementia registers with numbers of patients registered for co-morbid conditions, such as cardiovascular disease, in order to inform case finding;
- it aggregates general practice data at the level of Clinical Commissioning Group, Local Authority and Local Area Team;
- using prevalence data and the most recent Quality Outcomes Framework data (QOF DEM1), it allows the user to benchmark, and set trajectories for improvement in diagnosis rates;
- based on local trajectories for improvement, CCGs may determine a quantified ambition for improvement in its average diagnosis rate, year-on-year.
What this means for GPs and CCGs
The tool will enable general practices and commissioners to,
- take into account estimated prevalence among the General Practice’s patients in local care homes, and in the community;
- review estimated local prevalence in relation to numbers of patients on the Practice’s dementia register, and estimate the Practice’s ‘diagnosis gap’;
- consider prevalence by age group, and by severity;
- use the data as a means of benchmarking progress to improve diagnosis rates, particularly in relation to sub groups (for example, patients with early onset dementia; patients with co-morbid conditions);
- take action to improve local diagnosis rates using a range of mechanisms, including improving coding, case finding, indicative screening, and education to improve recognition, assessment, and diagnosis.
See also