Topic: Dementias and Neurodegenerative Diseases Research Network
Conditions
Interventions
There are two arms to this study: an active intervention (10 week ?Living well with dementia? group programme)
and a waiting list control.
The Living Well with Dementia groups involves 10 weekly sessions, each one of which lasts for 75 minutes. The sessions are led by nurses and other health professionals wor
Sponsors
Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust (UK)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Inclusion criteria
Inclusion criteria: 1. A diagnosis made by a Consultant Psychiatrist of either probable Alzheimer?s disease according to the NINCDS-ADRDA criteria (National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke-Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders Association) (McKhann et al. 1984) or probable Vascular Dementia according to the NINDS-AIREN criteria (National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke - Association Internationale pour la Recherche et l'Enseignement en Neurosciences) (Roman et al. 1993) within the previous 6 months of entry to the study. 2. Male & Female; Upper Age Limit 100 years ; Lower Age Limit 50 years 3. Acknowledge, at least occasionally, that they have a memory problem 4. Be willing to attend a group program 5. Have adequate communication skills to enable group participation 6. Have a MMSE (Mini-Mental State Examination; Folstein, Folstein & McHugh, 1975) score of at least 18
Exclusion criteria
Exclusion criteria: 1. Participants will be excluded from the study if they have a significant pre-morbid history of functional mental health problems (e.g. psychosis) 2. Participants will be excluded from the study if they have taken part in similar research or dementia group projects in the past
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| Quality of Life in Alzheimer?s disease scale (QOL-AD; Logsdon et al. 1999). The QOL-AD is a brief, 13-item measure designed specifically to obtain a rating of the participant's Quality of Life. It was developed for individuals with dementia, based on input from the person, their family and from experts in the field, to maximize construct validity, and to ensure that the measure focuses on quality of life domains thought to be important in cognitively impaired older adults. It uses simple and straightforward language and responses & includes assessments of the individual's relationships with friends and family, concerns about finances, physical condition, mood, and an overall assessment of life quality. | — |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| 1. Mood will be measured using the Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia (CSDD; Alexopoulos, Abrams, Young, & Shamoian, 1988) for the person with dementia, and the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ; Goldberg & Hillier, 1979) will be used to assess mood changes in the spouse/care-giver. 2. Self esteem will be measured using the Rosenberg self-esteem scale (Rosenberg, 1989) 3. Cognitive changes will be measured using the Modified Mini-Mental State Examination (Folstein, Folstein, & McHugh, 1975) 4. General Quality of Life of both care-giver and person with dementia will be measured using the EQ-5D (Rabin & de Charro, 2001). 5. Costs and resources used will be measured using a modified version of the Client Services Receipt Inventory (CSRI; Beecham & Knapp, 1992) 6. In addition, changes in the person with dementia?s ability to discuss dementia at pre and post intervention will be rated using the Marker of Assimilation of Problematic Voices (Honos-Webb, Stiles, & Greenberg, 2003) - a technique used in psychotherapy process research and adapted by a member of the research team for assessing changes in awareness in groups for people with dementia (Watkins, Cheston, Jones, & Gilliard, 2006). 7. Domain non-specific changes will also be measured. Additional information will be collected using semi-structured interviews with group participants and their carers. | — |
Countries
United Kingdom
Outcome results
None listed