Purrucker Rosanna, Buschner Andrea
Kompetenzzentrum Demographie, Bayerisches Landesamt für Statistik, Nürnberger Str. 95, 90762, Fürth, Deutschland.
Bundesgesundheitsblatt Gesundheitsforschung Gesundheitsschutz. 2025 Sep 25. doi: 10.1007/s00103-025-04130-5.
Dementia is already one of the leading causes of death in Germany. Due to the demographic change, the number of dementia-related deaths will continue to rise in the future. The diversity of "dementia" and the increasing importance of multimorbidity require all diseases listed on the death certificate to be included in the analyses. The aim of this article is to analyse all persons deceased "from" and "with" dementia in Bavaria (= dementia-associated deaths) with regard to their socio-demographic characteristics and to group them based on their comorbidities.
Since 2020, multiple causes of death statistics have been available in Bavaria. This allows for the inclusion of all other diseases contributing to death to be used in the analyses. The Bavarian dementia-related deaths from 2020 to 2022 were grouped into clusters based on their comorbidities using latent class analysis.
Approximately 19% of all deaths were dementia related. Among these, seven clusters were found: one multimorbidity cluster, one cardiovascular cluster, two infection clusters, two clusters with neurodegenerative diseases and one vascular cluster. The deceased of the clusters differed significantly in terms of age, gender, underlying cause and comorbidities.
The results of the multiple cause of death analysis indicated a possible underestimation of more specific types of dementia such as vascular dementia. In addition, identifying different combinations of diseases in dementia-related deaths can provide information on suitable treatment methods, preventive measures and possibilities to adapt care structures.
