¹Konkuk University Chungju Hospital, Psychiatry, Chungju, Korea, Republic of

Background: To implement remote monitoring technologies to protect elderly dementia patients, it is essential to understand their specific problem characteristics.

Aims & Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the key problem characteristics of Korean elderly dementia patients and to prioritize these characteristics according to patient risk, considering the introduction of remote monitoring technology.

Method: Individual responses in the completed questionnaires were tabulated. To identify the central characteristics, factorial analysis on the responses to the problem features questionnaire was performed. The 109 items were subdivided into problem category (problems of perception, mentality, language, behavior, and coping with daily life). Factor analysis identified 20 key problem characteristi.

Results: The use of abusive language, deceptive language, information gathering, and repetition were significantly more prevalent in women than in men with dementia. With the exception of abnormal sexual behavior and audiovisual deficits, all major characteristics differed between normal older adults and those with dementia, and across dementia severity levels. Judgment impairment was the most important factor distinguishing normal older adults from those with dementia. Regarding dementia severity, memory impairment was the most important factor distinguishing between severe and mild dementia. When risk to the patient was analyzed, problems of perception were identified as the problem charactoristics of highest priority.

Discussion & Conclusions: The present analysis only addresses patients confined to a welfare facility. Further studies on patients in a domestic situation will be required to determine if the central problem charactoristics in the home are different from those in the facility.