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McGill Family Medicine Studies Online, 2021, P1:e06

Page history last edited by reem.elsherif@mail.mcgill.ca 2 years, 8 months ago

Inequitable Impacts of COVID-19 on Persons Living with Dementia

 

Georgia Hacker1, Claire Godard-Sebillotte2, Isabelle Vedel1

 

1Department of Family Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

2Department of Medicine, Division of Geriatrics, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

 

Corresponding Author: Georgia Hacker, email georgia.hacker@mail.mcgill.ca

 

Background

Persons living with dementia in Canada are most at risk of experiencing severe outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic. This population accounts for the majority of deaths, and faces inherently higher risk due to advanced age, presence of chronic conditions, and cognitive and functional declines associated with more challenges in implementing social distancing. Furthermore, there is growing evidence that COVID-19 has a more severe impact on racialized persons and persons of lower socio-economic status, especially in populations where these two social determinants intersect. To date, we do not know how the pandemic impacts diverse populations of persons living with dementia.

 

Objectives

We will (1) describe the diversity of persons living with dementia, and (2) measure the extent to which the intersection of racialization and socioeconomic status modifies the impact of the pandemic.

 

Methods

This project will use health administrative databases to conduct the first description of the diversity of persons living with dementia in Canada. We will use advanced statistical methods, allowing for strengthening of causal inference from routinely collected observational data, to measure the impact of the pandemic in comparing mortality, care, and health service use in persons with dementia in 2020 to persons with dementia in 2019 and 2018. Persons will be weighted using propensity score-based inverse-probability weighting to increase the comparability of the cohorts. We will measure the diverse impact of the pandemic on persons living with dementia in comparing mortality, care, and health service use across racialization and socioeconomic status.

 

Anticipated Results

Results will be presented to key stakeholders including persons living with dementia, caregivers, decision makers, and clinicians in four provinces (ON, SK, AB, QB) to generate recommendations through deliberative dialogue to decrease the inequitable impacts of the pandemic, and to improve the care of all persons living with dementia.

 

Implications

This project has the potential to have a significant impact on how persons living with dementia receive health care. It is imperative that we understand the diversity of persons living with dementia, as well as how the intersection of different social determinants exacerbate the severity of COVID-19, in order to inform equitable health care policies.

 

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