Dementia: recognition and cognitive testing in community and primary care settings

Dementia is an umbrella term used to describe a group of symptoms characterised by behavioural changes, as well as loss of cognitive and social functioning brought about by progressive neurological disorders (Barber, 2020). There are over 200 subtypes of dementia, but the most common are Alzheimer's, vascular, Lewy Body, mixed dementia (often a combination of Alzheimer's and vascular) and frontotemporal dementias (Sandilyan and Dening, 2019) (Table 1). Based on prevalence modelling, there are estimated to be 944 000 people cur rently living with dementia in the UK and estimates indicate this will increase to over 2 million by 2051 (Wittenberg et al, 2019). Dementia is associated with old age; however, of the 944 000 people living with dementia, approximately 70 800 will be under 65 years old when diagnosed with (young onset) dementia (Carter et al, 2022). In England, due to their progressive nature, dementia and Alzheimer's disease remained the leading cause of death in February 2023 (for the 20th consecutive month), with 122.1 deaths per 100 000 people (5466 deaths) (Office for National Statistics (ONS), 2023). In March 2012, the Prime Minister set a challenge to deliver major improvements in dementia care (Department of Health (DH), 2012) that proposed three main goals for action: