Influence of rurality on diagnosing dementia in Australian general practice.

This article reviews the literature concerning barriers in making a diagnosis of dementia in general practice and examines these from a rural perspective. It is proposed that the increasing prevalence of dementia in coming years in Australia will be felt most keenly in rural communities where there are already shortages of GPs and dementia-specific services to manage growing demand. Evidence suggests that dementia is often not specifically diagnosed by GPs and that this is a global issue.