Effect of Treatment for Dementia Patients Using Telemedicine in Elderly Clinic at Wichianburi Hospital

Abstract

This study aimed to report the result of treatment for dementia patients with telemedicine in Elderly Clinic at Wichianburi Hospital. Samples were 20 patients with dementia who received treatment in the Elderly Clinic. Data were collected between August 2022 and December 2023. The research instruments included (1) Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline (IQCODE), (2) 14 questions items, (3) WHOQOL-BREF-Thai questionnaire, and (4) Thai Mental State Examination (TMSE). Satisfaction assessment was performed through telemedicine treatment. Data were analyzed descriptively using frequency distribution, percentage, mean, standard deviation; and analyzing differences in symptoms after treatment by paired t-test statistics at 0 and 6 months. The research results revealed that most patients were male, 65.0%, with the mean age of 74.05 years (SD=7.91). The mean IQCODE before treatment was 4.52 (SD=0.54) and after treatment 4.06 (SD=0.68). The mean for 14 questions-item results before treatment was 49.50 (SD=7.77) and after treatment 43.95 (SD=8.29). The WHOQOL-BREF-Thai before treatment mean average was 68.8 (SD=9.18) and after mean average was 79.4 (SD=7.28), TMSE before treatment mean averaged 13.85 (SD=4.64) and after mean averaged 16.7 (SD=4.15). The study results revealed that the elderly patients had some degree of dementia at first admission. This could be observed from the assessment of brain status in all 4 areas. After using the telemedicine system to treat the patients for 6 months, there was a tendency of improvement among them. In addition, the patients were satisfied with the services provided through the telemedicine system