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Written question asked by Justin Madders (Labour) on Monday, 29 April 2024, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 1 May 2024. It was answered by Helen Whately (Conservative) on Wednesday, 8 May 2024 on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care.

Dementia: Diagnosis

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will take steps to (a) improve published national primary care data on young onset dementia and (b) ensure that young onset dementia is included in the national dementia diagnosis target rate.

Answer

Young onset dementia (YOD), defined as dementia diagnosed under the age of 65.

The dementia diagnosis rate is not calculated for patients aged under 65 years old. This is because the numbers of patients known to have dementia in the sample population age groups comprising those aged between zero and 64 years old are not large enough for reliable estimates to be made.

The dementia diagnosis rate for patients aged 65 years old and over is calculated and published monthly via the Primary Care Dementia Data publication, which is available at the following link:

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/primary-care-dementia-data(opens in a new tab)

This publication does include a monthly count of the number of patients aged 65 years old and under who do have a dementia diagnosis on their patient record; this is expressed as a raw count and as a percentage of registered patients aged between zero and 64 years old.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
24066
Session
2023-24
Subjects
Dementia Diagnosis Statistics Waiting lists Standards
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk