To date, international migrants (i.e., subjects born outside their current country of residence) account for 11.5% of overall European population. This immigrant population is steadily growing older, thus increasingly facing the burden of age-related chronic conditions. In particular, the occurrence of dementia and cognitive disorders in these individuals will likely assume (and is probably already assuming) a special relevance, for a number of reasons. In fact, it may pose important challenges in terms of diagnostic approach, provision of care and resources¿ utilization. It is to be noted that this phenomenon has already reached relevant dimensions with nearly 675,000 dementia cases estimated in the migrant populations living in the extended European Union in 2018. Nevertheless, this issue is still poorly investigated at the ¿real-world¿ level, at least in Italy. Specifically, the sociodemographic and clinical features of immigrant subjects attending Italian dementia services have been poorly characterized. Moreover, no screening or assessment tool for the culture-sensitive cognitive evaluation has so far been validated. Finally, the perceptions and knowledge of dementia among ethnically diverse groups living in Italy have not been explored and characterized.
The present project is therefore aimed at: 1) investigating and describing the demographic, sociocultural, and phenotypic characteristics of immigrants attending Italian centers for cognitive disturbances and dementia (CCDDs) due to cognitive disturbances; 2) validating a cognitive screening instrument supporting a culture-sensitive assessment of cognitive functions and dementia definition in migrants subjects referring to CCDDs; and 3) exploring the perception of dementia and dementia care among groups of older immigrants, relatives of immigrants living with dementia, and professional caregivers, health personnel and care workers dealing with this issue.
