gigi said:
I don't really see the need for this sort of research-maybe someone can persuade me otherwise...
well of course there is a need:
- the researchers need funds to do research, and they need topics to spend their time on. They have a need.
- the web sites that sell medications and services need the surveys to get people visiting their sites and hopefully buying something. They have a need.
- newspapers need to fill column inches. They have a need.
For me, the problem with the report as surfaced by Sylvia is that it is picking bits from the report, which may actually make some sense, if read in full.
I'd be asking about the age distributions of the respondents to the survey, the distribution regionally around England and Wales, the time after first symptoms that diagnosis was made, the care services that were offered - and taken, the availability and use of medications to help the patients, and so on.
I'd want to know how many of those with dementia dies from dementia and its effect on the body, and how many might have died from separate fatal things [cancer,etc].
Also, many people who are diagnosed with dementia at or after 65 have had dementia symptoms for a good few years before.
I always look at these things in the light of my own experience, which admittedly is not common [the doctor has already said we have gone beyond the bounds of her knowledge and experience in the time Jan has had dementia].
The best we can do is read, note, and then move on.
