Table 1.

Characteristics of the experts

	Total	DE	IE	IT	NL	NO	PT	SE	UK
Experts (n)	38	6	7	4	4	5	4	4	4
Gender
Female	25	4	5	2	2	5	2	3	2
Male	13	2	2	2	2		2	1	2
Age (years)
< 40	2		1		1
40–44	2	1			1				1
45–49	2		1
50–54	8	3	1			2	2
55–59	11	1	3			2	1	1	3
60–64	7	1	1	2	2	1
> =65	6			2	-		1	3
Years of professional experience, range	12–63	15–38	12–35	26–40	17–38	25–39	29–40	30–63	21–34
Years of experience with dementia care, range	0.5–38	3–23	1–30	17–30	14–38	0.5–25	11–30	30–37	5–33
Years of experience in current position, range	0.5–35	1–23	0.5–10	6–22	1–12	0.5–7	5–15	15–35	2–19
Type of expertsa (n)
Policy maker	7		2	1			1		3
Political decision maker (elected)	2					1		1
Political decision maker (not elected)	7	3			1	3
Advisory board	6		1	4	1
Academic researcher	1							1
Representative of NGO/Alzheimer society	11	1	2	1	1	1	3	1	1
Representative of insurance company	3	2			1
Representative of dementia care provider	2				1		1
Representative of funding organization	2		2
Representative of umbrella organization providing advice and collecting data on dementia care	1							1
Experts (n) operating on …
national level	30	4	7	3	3	2	3	4	4
regional level	4	1			1	1	1
local level	4	1		1		2
Mode of interview
face-to-face	17		5	3	1	4	4
telephone	21	6	2	1	3	1		4	4
Duration of interview in min, range, mean	20–110, 53.5	20–50, 30.8	45–55, 52.1	95–110, 102.5	24–50, 40.3	50–90, 65.0	48–70, 59.5	45–65, 57.5	20–45, 32.5

Note: DE Germany, IE Ireland, IT Italy, NL Netherlands, NO Norway, PT Portugal, SE Sweden, UK United Kingdom, NGO Non-governmental organisation

^aMultiple responses were possible