Facilitating Early Diagnosis of Dementia (FED-D)

Facilitating Early Diagnosis of Dementia (FED-D): a pragmatic, multi-site, cluster randomised controlled trial

Status

Active, not recruiting

Phases

Unknown

Study type

Interventional

Source

ISRCTN

Registry ID

ISRCTN19216873

Enrollment

Registered

2013-08-22

Start date

2013-09-27

Completion date

Unknown

Last updated

2017-04-18

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Dementia Mental and Behavioural Disorders Dementia

Interventions

We intend to send a personal letter from the GP with the CHOICE leaflet explaining what to do to overcome barriers to getting help for memory problem to all people aged over 70 in the practice Control

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

All

Inclusion criteria

Inclusion criteria: We are recruiting GP practices to the study and our study will include all patients in the GP practices over the age of 70 years

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion criteria: The intervention will not be given to registered patients within included GP practices over the age of 70 years who have a diagnosis of dementia, live in a care home or have been referred to specialist memory services

Design outcomes

Primary

Measure	Time frame
The primary outcome is the cognitive score as measured by the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) of people referred to memory services in the intervention and control groups who receive a diagnosis of dementia. The minimum clinically important difference in MMSE score is three points and is the most widely used standard test of cognitive function. We will collate the baseline MMSE score from the new patients? presenting to memory clinic (i.e. MMSE scores of new presentations) at 3, 6 and 12 months after sending the letters. We are not collecting follow-up MMSEs. There is a maximum score of 30, with scores of 0-10=severe, 11-20=moderate, and 21-24=mild dementia. Added 05/01/2016: As many memory services were using other cognitive measures than the MMSE, most commonly the 100 point Addenbrookes Cognitive Examination (ACE-R and ACE-III), it was agreed before we began the analysis to include patients without MMSE scores but with ACE scores. We used data on the latter to estimate the missing MMSE scores. We therefore converted the ACE scores so that ACE and MMSE were used as a single outcome score. The change to the primary outcome was agreed on 08/12/2014.	—

Measure

Time frame

The primary outcome is the cognitive score as measured by the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) of people referred to memory services in the intervention and control groups who receive a diagnosis of dementia. The minimum clinically important difference in MMSE score is three points and is the most widely used standard test of cognitive function. We will collate the baseline MMSE score from the new patients? presenting to memory clinic (i.e. MMSE scores of new presentations) at 3, 6 and 12 months after sending the letters. We are not collecting follow-up MMSEs. There is a maximum score of 30, with scores of 0-10=severe, 11-20=moderate, and 21-24=mild dementia. Added 05/01/2016: As many memory services were using other cognitive measures than the MMSE, most commonly the 100 point Addenbrookes Cognitive Examination (ACE-R and ACE-III), it was agreed before we began the analysis to include patients without MMSE scores but with ACE scores. We used data on the latter to estimate the missing MMSE scores. We therefore converted the ACE scores so that ACE and MMSE were used as a single outcome score. The change to the primary outcome was agreed on 08/12/2014.

—

Secondary

Measure	Time frame
1. Number of people presenting with a possible diagnosis of dementia will be collected from GPs practices using MiQUEST (a Department of Health computer system allowing anonymised data extraction from GP practices). We will collect the number of people presenting to their GP who are and who are not referred on to memory services. 2. Numbers of patients referred to memory services from participating intervention and control practices 3. The number of memory services appointments offered and people attending for diagnostic assessment 4. The number of people referred who do not have dementia or mild cognitive impairment 5. Costs of implementing the intervention, including the costs associated with the CHOICE leaflet (printing, and distribution), GP visits to discuss possible diagnoses of dementia and use of memory services and the cost of assessing those with and without dementia 6. We will systematically ask clinicians about any inappropriate presentations and patient distress and record these as adverse events	—

Measure

Time frame

1. Number of people presenting with a possible diagnosis of dementia will be collected from GPs practices using MiQUEST (a Department of Health computer system allowing anonymised data extraction from GP practices). We will collect the number of people presenting to their GP who are and who are not referred on to memory services. 2. Numbers of patients referred to memory services from participating intervention and control practices 3. The number of memory services appointments offered and people attending for diagnostic assessment 4. The number of people referred who do not have dementia or mild cognitive impairment 5. Costs of implementing the intervention, including the costs associated with the CHOICE leaflet (printing, and distribution), GP visits to discuss possible diagnoses of dementia and use of memory services and the cost of assessing those with and without dementia 6. We will systematically ask clinicians about any inappropriate presentations and patient distress and record these as adverse events

—

Countries

United Kingdom

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ISRCTN (via WHO ICTRP) · Data processed: Feb 27, 2026