CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne
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Review Case Reports
Diagnosis and treatment of dementia: 1. Risk assessment and primary prevention of Alzheimer disease.
In addition to nonmodifiable genetic risk factors, potentially modifiable factors such as hypertension, hyperlipidemia and environmental exposures have been identified as risk factors for Alzheimer disease. In this article, we provide physicians with practical guidance on risk assessment and primary prevention of Alzheimer disease based on recommendations from the Third Canadian Consensus Conference on the Diagnosis and Treatment of Dementia, held in March 2006. ⋯ Despite the personal and societal burden of dementia, our understanding of genetic predisposition to dementias and the contribution of other risk factors remains limited. More importantly, there are few data to explain the overall risks and benefits of prevention strategies or their impact of risk modification.
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Comparative Study
Comparison of provincial prescription drug plans and the impact on patients' annual drug expenditures.
Reimbursement for outpatient prescription drugs is not mandated by the Canada Health Act or any other federal legislation. Provincial governments independently establish reimbursement plans. We sought to describe variations in publicly funded provincial drug plans across Canada and to examine the impact of this variation on patients' annual expenditures. ⋯ Considerable interprovincial variation in publicly funded prescription drug plans results in substantial variation in annual expenditures by Canadians with identical prescription burdens. A revised pharmaceutical strategy might reduce these major inequities.