People with cognitive impairment (CI) need to be identified early because of the risk of progression to dementia.
The primary objective of the study was to analyze the usefulness of the community pharmacy for early detection of CI in older people through their caregivers. As secondary objective the risk factors related to IQ-CODE classification of risk of CI were identified.
A cross-sectional observational study was designed.
Caregivers were selected by pharmacists from Spanish community pharmacies.
Subjects with a close relationship to persons over 70 years of age who were not previously diagnosed with CI and who did not live in a nursing home or were hospitalized participated in the study.
The proportion of older people who were classified as “at risk of CI” was assessed using the Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline in the Elderly (IQ-CODE), which was completed by the caregiver.
A total of 197 pharmacists selected 910 caregivers with an average age of 53 years, 75.5% of whom were women. In 324 people over the age of 70 (38.5%), “risk of CI” was observed, increasing with age. The risk of CI was 4.3 times higher in older people who complained of memory loss (p<0.001), 2.5 times higher if they had had a stroke in the last two years (p=0.007), 1.9 times higher if they were smokers (p=0.045) and 1.6 times higher if they were diabetic (p=0.028).
Detection of risk of CI from the community pharmacy showed prevalence figures consistent with the CI figures observed in the Spanish primary care setting, demonstrating the capacity of the community pharmacy to contribute to early detection of CI.