Dementia in Hungary: General practitioners’ routines and perspectives regarding early recognition

Background Undetected dementia in primary care is a global problem. Since general practitioners (GPs) act as the first step in the identification process, examining their routines could help us to enhance the currently low recognition rates. Objectives The study aimed to explore, for the first time in Hungary, the dementia identification practices and views of GPs. Methods In the context of an extensive, national survey (February-November 2014) 8% of all practicing GPs in Hungary (n = 402) filled in a self-administered questionnaire. The questions (single, multiple-choice, Likert-type) analysed in the present study explored GPs’ methods and views regarding dementia identification and their ideas about the optimal circumstances of case-finding. Results The vast majority of responding GPs (97%) agreed that the early recognition of dementia would enhance both the patients’ and their relatives’ well-being. When examining the possibility of dementia, most GPs (91%) relied on asking the patients general questions and only a quarter of them (24%) used formal tests, even though they were mostly satisfied with both the Clock Drawing Test (69%) and the Mini-Mental State Examination (65%). Longer consultation time was chosen as the most important facet of improvement needed for better identification of dementia in primary care (81%). Half of the GPs (49%) estimated dementia recognition rate to be lower than 30% in their practice. Conclusions Hungarian GPs were aware of the benefits of early recognition, but the shortage of consultation time in primary care was found to be a major constraint on efficient case-finding.