Backgrounds: The association of dementia co-morbid with depression with the patterns of outpatient utilization is still lacking. This study was conducted to compare the number of outpatient visits between dementia patients with and without depression.
Methods: In this nationwide cohort study, outpatient utilizations of dementia patients with and without depression were tracked for a 1-year period after first diagnosed dementia. The information was acquired from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database entries between 2005 and 2016. The number outpatient visits were analyzed by log-transformed because their distribution of outpatient visits was skewed to right. The association of dementia comorbid with depression with log-transformed outpatient visits were accessed by multivariable linear regression models.
Results: The mean (standard deviation) numbers of psychiatric outpatient visit per patient year of dementia with and without depression were 7.30 (8.54) and 3.15 (8.76), respectively, with a difference in log average numbers of psychiatric outpatient visit of 0.74 (95%CI 0.68 ~ 0.80). However, the mean (standard deviation) numbers of psychiatric outpatient visit per patient year of dementia with depression (51.69 [36.21]) were significantly lower than that in dementia patients without depression (57.12 [60.99]), with a difference in log average outpatient visit of -0.11 (95%CI -0.16 ~ -0.07).
Conclusion: Dementia with depression had more psychiatric outpatient care but less outpatient care, which may imply that the abnormal non-psychiatric symptoms or signs in dementia patients with depression may delay seeking for an outpatient care and their health-care service or design may be needed to improvement.

Authors:
Chih-Ching Liu, Asia University, Taiwan
Chien-Hui Liu, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taiwan

About the Presenter(s)
Dr. Chih-Ching Liu is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Healthcare Administration at Asia University in Taiwan. Her research interest focuses on health risk assessment and heath service research.

Connect on ResearchGate
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Chih-Ching-Liu

Additional website of interest
https://ha.asia.edu.tw/en/team_a/Full_time_teachers/Dr-Chih-Ching-Liu-9647938

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