Aetiologically heterogeneous 

The causes of the disease and mode of operation are varied.

Aphasia          

Difficulty understanding the speech of others and/or expressing oneself verbally.

Apraxia          

Inability to properly use a known object

Agnosia          

Lack of sensory-perceptual ability to recognise impressions from one or more of the senses.

Carer  

In this text, the term carer is used to refer to a person who takes care of someone with dementia on an informal basis (i.e. it is not part of their paid employment even if in some countries some carers receive a small payment from the government in recognition of their valuable work). Often carers are relatives but this is not always the case which is why we do not use the term “family carer”. In most cases, they did not choose to become a carer but circumstances of life resulted in them becoming one.

CCTV

This is the abbreviation for closed-circuit television systems which usually consists of a television camera, a video monitor and a transmission medium (e.g. a cable, fibre or wireless). Such systems are often used to monitor public spaces or premises.

Cross sectional survey A survey which is carried out on a group of people at a specific moment in time (e.g. rather than every 5 or 10 years)

Enuresis          

Urinary incontinence

Executive functioning

The ability to plan actions and change plans when adaptation is necessary

Impairment     

Weakening, damage or deterioration (e.g. as a result of injury or disease).

Neuropathology         

Pathology of the nervous system

Pathological   

Resulting from the disease

Professional carer       

People who care for people with dementia in the context of paid employment are referred to in this text as professional carers.  Sometimes, to clearly differentiate between the two types of carers we use the terms “informal carer” and “professional carer”. This distinction does not imply any difference in the quality of care provided by either.

Randomisation           

A method to ensure that the participants in a study were chosen randomly (so as to avoid involving people who all have something in common as this might contribute towards misleading results).

Video recording         

We are using “video recording” as a general term to cover any type of recording of a person’s image regardless of whether the recorded image is stored, live, digital, on a film reel, with or without sound etc.