Table 1.
Female sex, % | 73 |
Age, mean (SD) | 48 (11) |
Experience as a physician, mean (SD) | 21 (11) |
Resident trainee, % | 17 |
Supervisor,% | 53 |
Care for patients with dementia; frequency, % | |
At least daily | 56 |
At least weekly | 34 |
At least monthly | 6 |
At least every 2 months | 3 |
At least every 6 months | 0 |
<Every 6 months | 0 |
Care for patients with dementia; stage of disease, % | |
Mostly early stage (mild dementia) | 8 |
Both early and late (moderate or advanced) stage, about equally distributed | 39 |
Mostly late (moderate or advanced) stage | 53 |
Estimation of patients with dementia dying in the past year, % | |
0 | 2 |
1–4 | 27 |
5–9 | 25 |
10–19 | 34 |
20 or more | 13 |
Significant differences (p<0.05) between GPs and elderly care practitioners were not observed for sex, trainee or supervisor status (χ2), age and experience (t-test). With the hierarchical gamma test there were differences between the last three items; elderly care physicians cared for patients with dementia more frequently (eg, daily 70% vs 22%), cared for patients in later stages (eg, advanced stage 70% vs 11%) and more patients with dementia died in their practice in the past year (eg, 20 or more 17% vs 0).
*Two of 66 respondents missed characteristics other than sex and age. GP (n=18) included two general practice-based assistant practitioners (often nurses or social workers, referred in the Netherlands as ‘praktijkondersteuner huisarts’, POH). Elderly care practitioners (n=48) included 46 elderly care physicians, a geriatrician and a geriatric nurse. Experience refers to experience as a physician and was missing for the general practice-based assistant practitioners (POH) and the nurse.
GP, general practitioner.