International journal of geriatric psychiatry
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Int J Geriatr Psychiatry · Jun 2007
Review Comparative StudyEvaluating the outcome of interventions on quality of life in dementia: selection of the appropriate scale.
A 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. ⋯ QoL 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.
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Int J Geriatr Psychiatry · Jun 2007
Yield of a new method to detect cognitive impairment in general practice.
To examine whether a new screening method that identified patients with cognitive impairment who needed further examination on the presence of dementia yielded patients who were not detected by their general practitioner (GP), and to identify factors associated with GPs' awareness of patients identified by the screening. ⋯ A two-stage screening method and increased alertness for cognitive impairment and dementia among patients with depressive symptoms may improve detection rate of dementia in general practice.