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. 2023 Dec 19:14:1290002.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1290002. eCollection 2023.

Medical help-seeking intentions among patients with early Alzheimer's disease

Alberto Villarejo-Galende  1 , Elena García-Arcelay  2 , Gerard Piñol-Ripoll  3 , Antonio Del Olmo-Rodríguez  4 , Félix Viñuela  5 , Mercè Boada  6 , Emilio Franco-Macías  7 , Almudena Ibañez de la Peña  8 , Mario Riverol  9 , Albert Puig-Pijoan  10 , Pedro Abizanda-Soler  11 , Rafael Arroyo  12 , Miquel Baquero-Toledo  13 , Inmaculada Feria-Vilar  14 , Mircea Balasa  15 , Ángel Berbel  16 , Eloy Rodríguez-Rodríguez  17 , Alba Vieira-Campos  18 , Guillermo Garcia-Ribas  19 , Silvia Rodrigo-Herrero  20 , Alberto Lleó  21 , Jorge Maurino  2
Affiliations

Medical help-seeking intentions among patients with early Alzheimer's disease

Alberto Villarejo-Galende et al. Front Psychiatry. .

Abstract

Background: Limited information is available on the active process of seeking medical help in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) at early stages. The aim of this study was to assess the phenomenon of medical help-seeking in early AD and to identify associated factors.

Methods: A multicenter, non-interventional study was conducted including patients of 50-90 years of age with prodromal or mild AD (National Institute on Aging/Alzheimer's Association criteria), a Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score ≥ 22, and a Clinical Dementia Rating-Global score (CDR-GS) of 0.5-1.0. A multivariate logistic regression analysis was conducted.

Results: A total of 149 patients were included. Mean age (SD) was 72.3 (7.0) years, 50.3% were female, and 87.2% had a CDR-GS score of 0.5. Mean disease duration was 1.4 (1.8) years. Ninety-four (63.1%) patients sought medical help, mostly from neurologists. Patients with help-seeking intentions were mostly female (60.6%) with a CDR-GS score of 0.5 (91.5%) and had a greater awareness of diagnosis, poorer quality of life, more depressive symptoms, and a more severe perception of their condition than their counterparts. Lack of help-seeking intentions was associated with male sex (p = 0.003), fewer years of education (p = 0.005), a low awareness of diagnosis (p = 0.005), and a low emotional consequence of the condition (p = 0.016).

Conclusion: Understanding the phenomenon of active medical help-seeking may facilitate the design of specific strategies to improve the detection of cognitive impairment, especially in patients with a lower level of educational attainment and poor awareness of their condition.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; awareness; early diagnosis; help-seeking; illness representation.

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Conflict of interest statement

EG-A and JM are employees of Roche Farma Spain. AV-G discloses honoraria from a consulting/advisory role with KRKA, Kern Pharma, Exeltis, Esteve, Roche, AbbVie, Schwabe, Neuraxpharm, Nutricia, and Alter. AO-R discloses honoraria from a consulting/advisory role with Alter, Biocross, Biogen, KRKA, Esteve, Schwabe, Nutricia, and Lilly. EF-M discloses honoraria from a consulting/advisory role with Kern Pharma, Esteve, Roche, and Neuraxpharm. MeB discloses honoraria from a consulting/advisory role with Grifols, Araclon Biotech, Roche, Lilly, Merck, Biogen, Zambon, Novo-Nordisk, Bioiberica, Biogen, Eisai, Servier, and Schwabe Pharma. RA discloses their participation on an advisory board and having received speaking fees from Almirall, Bayer, Biogen, Merck, Novartis, Roche, Sanofi, and Teva. AL discloses honoraria from a consulting/advisory role with Grifols, Fujirebio-Europe, Novartis, Roche, Otsuka, Nutricia, Zambón, Biogen, Lilly, and KRKA. A preliminary report of this data was presented as an eposter at the 9th Congress of the European Academy of Neurology (EPO-187, Budapest, Hungary; July 1–4, 2023). The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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