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Article History

Received: 17 August 2018

Accepted: 29 April 2019

First Online: 5 December 2019

Ethics approval and consent to participate

: The study protocol, the consent procedures, including the witnessed consent procedure, and all studies were approved by the King’s College London research ethics committee and all local ethical committees: the Memory, Depression Institute and Risk Diseases (IMEDER) Ethics Committee (Peru); Finlay Albarran Medical Faculty of Havana Medical University Ethical Committee (Cuba); Hospital Universitario de Caracas Ethics Committee (Venezuela); Consejo Nacional de Bioética y Salud (CONABIOS, Dominican Republic); Instituto Nacional de Neurología y Neurocirugía Ethics Committee (Mexico); Oficina para la Protección de Participantes Humanos en Investigación (OPPHI, Puerto Rico).All participation has been on the basis of individual informed signed consent. Persons with dementia who lacked capacity for consent were recruited on the basis of a next of kin signed agreement. The study information sheet was read to the older person, and if at that stage or subsequently they seemed to show distress or dissent from participation they were not included regardless of whether assent by next of kin had been provided. The next of kin was informed of this together with the reason for withdrawal from the study. Illiterate persons were read the information sheet and consent form and asked for their verbal consent. An independent, literate witness would then sign their attestation that this process had occurred and that verbal consent had been provided.

: Not applicable.

: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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