Abstract
BACKGROUND: Patients with dementia (PD) are a special challenge for the healthcare system. They are responsible for 5% of the expenditure in the German healthcare service. The disease-related deficits and the associated need for care leads to the fact that patients are not able to live in their own residence and rely on the care of nursing homes (NH). OBJECTIVE: How is the overall care in PD assessed in house calls (HC)? Does the regional situation influence the living conditions of PD? MATERIAL AND METHODS: As part of the SESAM‑5 study 303 participating general practices in Saxony were asked to document their HC within a period of 1 year whereby 4286 HC were documented through questionnaires and analyzed for content and structural data. RESULTS: The prevalence of dementia in HC patients was 27.5% and 72.6% of PD lived in a NH or assisted living home. The medical staff assessed the overall care of PD in the NH to be significantly better than in their own residence. This discrepancy was greater in rural compared to urban regions although in urban regions significantly more patients live in NHs (27% vs. 51%). CONCLUSIONS: The overall care of PD in HC was assessed predominantly as good by medical personnel, whereby PD in NH were assessed comparatively better than those in their own residence. This could be explained by the high need of care in PD. The difference between rural and urban regions is explainable through differences in the infrastructure and also in the organization in rural areas, where relatives participate in care significantly more frequently. In the future more focus could be placed on alternative types of housing because in PD cognitive deficits are in the foreground.