Fewer PIMs in dementia patients with immigrant background

People with dementia who have a non-Western migrant background appear to be less likely to be prescribed medications that could worsen their dementia than people without a migrant background. Cultural differences may play a role. That’s the conclusion that physician and researcher Bianca Stroege drew from a study as part of her doctoral research.

“As general practitioners, we want to gain a better understanding of the quality of dementia care in people with non-Western migration backgrounds,” says Bianca Stroegg. She is a general practitioner in training and combines this with her doctoral research at the Department of General Medicine at the Medical University of Amsterdam. She has recently published one of the sub-studies – a study on the prescribing of ‘potentially inappropriate medications’ (PIMs) in people with dementia with and without a non-Western migration background. 1 Another study – on diabetes in people with a migration background versus people without a migration background – is in preparation. “Both dementia and diabetes are conditions for which treatment can vary depending on a person’s background. Other research we have done shows that healthcare consumption in general can vary significantly depending on origin. 2 It’s an area of ​​research where there’s still a lot to discover.”

“We hypothesized that PIMs would occur more often among people with non-Western immigrant backgrounds.”

Bianca Stroege is a general practitioner at AIOS.

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