Sensitivity and Specificity of Death Certificate Diagnoses for Dementing Illnesses, 1988–1990

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
To evaluate the extent to which mortality data, which is often used to track secular trends for specific diseases, underestimates the prevalence of dementia. Retrospective analysis of existing data. Department of Mental Health inpatient facilities in South Carolina. Inpatients at Department of Mental Health facilities who were listed in the South Carolina Statewide Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders Registry and who died between 1988 and 1990 (n = 450). Sensitivity and specificity of dementia diagnoses on death certificates compared to medical record diagnoses for inpatients with a pre-mortem dementia diagnosis. Twenty-three percent of death certificates contained any dementia diagnosis (104/450). The sensitivity of death certificates varied by type of dementia (28 percent for Alzheimer's disease; 8 percent for multi-infarct dementia) as well as by race, sex, and age. Mortality statistics substantially underestimate the prevalence of dementing illnesses and do not fully represent the public health burden of dementia.

This publication has 6 references indexed in Scilit: