– Scottish Parliament written question – answered at on 21 March 2011.
Question S3W-40549
To ask the Scottish Executive how many people have been diagnosed with alcohol-related dementia in each of the last five years, broken down by NHS board area.
The exact number of people diagnosed with alcohol-related dementia in Scotland is not available centrally.
National estimates can be given of the number of patients consulting a GP or practice-employed nurse for this condition based on information obtained from a sample of Scottish general practices participating in PTI (Practice Team Information). Patients registered to PTI practices are representative of Scotland as a whole in terms of their age, gender and deprivation profile. The PTI sample is only representative at national level, so NHS board-level estimates cannot be provided. The last year for which PTI data are currently available is the year ending 31 March 2010.
The following table shows the estimated number of patients who have consulted a GP or practice-employed nurse in Scotland at least once where a clinical code for alcohol-related dementia was recorded, for each of the financial years ending 31 March 2006 to 2010, based on PTI data.
These figures are likely to underestimate the true numbers of patients in Scotland with alcohol-related dementia. This is because, for the purposes of this request, "alcohol-related dementia" is defined so as to include specific clinical coding for the following only: alcohol amnestic syndrome; Korsakov’s alcoholic psychosis; Korsakov’s alcoholic psychosis with peripheral neuritis; Wernicke-Korsakov syndrome; alcohol amnestic syndrome NOS; other alcoholic dementia; chronic alcoholic brain syndrome, and mental and behavioural disorders due to use alcohol: amnesic syndrome. Clinicians may in some cases use less specific codes than these ones for patients with alcohol-related dementia, and these cases will therefore not be captured in the estimates shown in the table.
Estimated Numbers of Patients in Scotland Consulting for Alcohol-Related Dementia at Least Once in the Financial Years (1 April to 31 March) 2005-06 to 2009-10
Financial Year | Estimated Patients | 95% Confidence Intervals1 |
2005-06 | 134 | (47-221) |
2006-07 | 153 | (59-247) |
2007-08 | 201 | (63-339) |
2008-09 | 166 | (27-306) |
2009-10 | 156 | (62-250) |
Note: 1. As the estimates are based on data from a sample of practices, 95% confidence intervals are included to indicate the precision of these estimates. For more information see:
Yes1 person thinks so
No0 people think not
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