Dementia neuropsychiatric prevalence, severity, and correlates in community‐dwelling Thai older adults

Background Thailand is experiencing a rapid increase in the number of older persons with dementia, yet little is known about the nature and consequences of dementia neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS), particularly outside of clinical settings. We examined the prevalence, severity, and correlates of NPS, including correlation with family caregiver burden and distress, among community‐dwelling Thai older adults with probable dementia. Methods This study is based on analysis of baseline data from a hybrid type III cluster randomized design comparing two different implementation approaches of an evidence‐based exercise intervention for persons with dementia. A three‐step recruitment process was used for recruiting participants from the local healthcare system and included clinical case confirmation of probable degenerative dementia. To be eligible, participants needed to be age 60 and above, have probable dementia, have 1 or more NPS, be ambulatory, and have an adult (age 18+) family caregiver. 353 participants enrolled in the study and completed based assessments, including NPS assessment, caregiver stress associated with NPS, as well as other care recipient and caregiver characteristics. We examined NPS severity with caregiver distress and used ordinary least squares (OLS) regression to examine associations between PWD and caregiver characteristics and NPS severity. Results NPS prevalence varied from 18% for appetite/eating changes to 42% for delusions. NPS severity was significantly (P < .05) associated with caregiver stress for all individual NPS. Among PWD characteristics, higher ADL score (less functional impairment) was inversely associated with NPS total severity (b = ‐0.16, p < 0.05). More physical role limitation was significantly associated with higher NPS total severity (b = 0.77, p < 0.001). Among caregivers’ characteristics, higher burden was significantly associated with higher NPS total severity (b = 0.19, p < 0.001). Conclusions Our study found that NPS are common among community dwelling PWD in Thailand and are associated with adverse impacts on both PWD and family caregivers. These findings highlight the clinical importance of NPS symptoms among Thai older adults. The high prevalence of psychotic symptoms in this community sample is noteworthy and deserves further attention. Results of the parent intervention study will be reported in 2023.