• Int J Geriatr Psychiatry · Jun 2007

    Review Comparative Study

    Evaluating the outcome of interventions on quality of life in dementia: selection of the appropriate scale.

    • Carla J M Schölzel-Dorenbos, Teake P Ettema, Joke Bos, Ellen Boelens-van der Knoop, Debby L Gerritsen, Frans Hoogeveen, Jacomine de Lange, Lucinda Meihuizen, and Rose-Marie Dröes.
    • Memory Clinic Slingeland Hospital / Alzheimer Centre Nijmegen, University Medical Centre Nijmegen, The Netherlands. c.scholzel@slingeland.nl
    • Int J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2007 Jun 1; 22 (6): 511-9.

    BackgroundA literature study was conducted to contribute to an adequate use of quality of life (QoL) instruments for the evaluation of interventions in dementia care by providing an overview of properties of QoL measures that acknowledge domains important to dementia patients.MethodsDomains important to patients, and domains that professional caregivers in different settings focus on, are compared to domains represented in nine QoL instruments. Data on psychometrics and applicability are generated.ResultsFour instruments best represent domains of QoL important to patients and domains professional caregivers in 24-h care and daytime activities focus on. Two are self-rating instruments: Schedule for the Evaluation of Individual Quality of Life, applicable in mild dementia, measuring individual QoL of patient and informal caregiver, and Quality of Life-Alzheimer's Disease Scale, which can be applied up to moderately severe dementia. For patients with advanced dementia receiving residential care, the observational instruments Qualidem and Discomfort scale-Dementia of Alzheimer Type are recommended. The first is easily administered by nurse assistants or occupational therapists and covers several QoL domains on which they focus in daily practice. The second can be used by various professionals.ConclusionsQoL assessment provides a format for patients and (in)formal caregivers to express whether an intervention has made an important difference to the patient's life. Improvement of QoL in dementia should have high priority in care, treatment and research. This study shows that severity of dementia, care type, setting, and the specific QoL domains an intervention focuses on, determine which QoL instrument is most appropriate in a specific situation.Copyright 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…