Strategy for early screening of dementia

Interaction between medical students and their relatives

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate the approach of medical students among their family members for screening early detection of dementia. Methods: Analytical and observational study. The sample was of convenience involving 41 relatives. The MiniMental Status Examination-MMSE was used. The parameters of the quantitative variables were expressed by their means and standard deviations and median. The parameters of the qualitative variables were expressed by their frequencies. Fisher's exact test was used between the frequencies of schooling levels and the MMSE score. P ≤ 0.05 was considered for rejection of the null hypothesis. The project was approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee. Results: The mean age was 67.7 ± 7.2 years. The schooling time was categorized into: 4 (9.7%) with
<8 years, 9 (22%) with > 8 and <11 years and 28 (68.3%)with > 11 years. Among participants with educational level < 8
years, the MMSE score was normal in three cases (75%), changed decreased in one case (25%); among those with
education level between 8 and 11 years, four were normal (44.4%), decreased in five (55.6%); among those with
educational attainment >11 years, 20 (71.4%) were normal and eight (28.6%) were decreased. Regarding the sample
size, no association was found between high levels of education (> 11 years) and lower levels of schooling (p = 0.3072). Conclusions: The approach of medical students in dementia screening among family members needs to be more stimulated and may lead to greater social and family interaction in the environment in which they live.