Author(s):
Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is neurodegenerative disorder that develops over a period of years that differs from normal aging. One of the most important risk factors is increasing age, and the majority of people with Alzheimer's are 65 years and older. AD reduces life expectancy and is one of the major causes of physical disability, institutionalization, and low quality of life among the elderly. AD is highly related to functional disability and institutionalization. There are many factors associated with AD including physical and behavioural complications.
Aim: To assess epidemiological pattern and complications of AD among patients in Aseer region, Saudi Arabia.
Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional study included 110 Alzheimer patients (66 males and 44 females) registered at Aseer Central Hospital, Southern of Saudi Arabia. A pre-structured questionnaire was used for data collection that included patients’ personal characteristics and frequency of exposure to complications associated with Alzheimer disease.
Results: About 72% of the patients aged 70 years or older and 60% were males. Almost all of the patients were citizens 97.3% and 62.7% were married. Exact of 56.4% of the patients were illiterate and only few 4.5% were university graduated. Pneumonia was the most frequent complication followed by getting lost, fall down, and bone fracture. Getting lost was significantly more among males than females (P=0.007), while pneumonia was significantly more among patients treated in governmental hospitals (P=0.003). On the other hand, bone fractures and falling down did not differ significantly according to patients’ personal characteristics.
Conclusions: The most frequent complications associated with Alzheimer Disease in our study population were pneumonia, getting lost, falling down and bone fractures. Risk factors associated with these complications include male gender for getting lost. Health care providers are advised to provide close care to Alzheimer disease patients.
