Study: Men and Women With Dementia Treated Differently

A study in JAMA Network Open found many people with advanced dementia, especially men, receive onerous medical interventions in their final month of life, reports Newsmax Health . The researchers analyzed 27,243 nursing community residents in Ontario, Canada, with advanced dementia, who died between June 1, 2010, and March 31, 2015. In the last 30 days of subjects' lives, 8.9 percent visited an emergency department, and more than 20 percent were hospitalized, with a quarter of hospitalizations occurring in the last three days of life. Moreover, 13.6 percent died in an acute care center, and men were more likely than women to experience transitions in care at end of life. Transitions in this case can entail relocating a resident from their nursing community and moving them to a hospital or acute care center. Nearly 10 percent of subjects received invasive critical care for potentially life-threatening conditions. Men had 33 percent higher odds of receiving critical care for life-threatening conditions, 17 percent higher odds of being physically restrained, and 33 percent higher odds of receiving an antibiotic, than women. The authors also referred to research that men with dementia are more likely to receive healthcare than women.