Evaluating the Quality of Life of People with Dementia in Residential Care Facilities

Abstract

Aims: Our purpose was to compare recipient and caregiver perception of the quality of life (QoL) of people with dementia in residential care facilities and to identify the factors associated with their perception of QoL. Methods: Residents’ QoL was evaluated by both the patient and the caregiver, using the Quality of Life in Alzheimer’s Disease and several other indices. Results: The correlation between the self-rated QoL score and the staff-rated QoL score was low. Conclusions: The staff tended to underestimate QoL. The main determinants of QoL were the functional status and depression. Improving physical function and mood may be beneficial in providing a better QoL.

The Determinants of Quality of Life of Nursing Home Residents with Young-Onset Dementia and the Differences between Dementia Subtypes

“…Even when sufficient communicative abilities were present, their severe cognitive impairments likely would have threatened the validity of self-reported results. Nonetheless, we should be aware that the QoL ratings could have been influenced by the professional caregivers' attitudes towards the resident and dementia [10,12,16] . Furthermore, we should be aware that correlations between the QUALIDEM subscales and NPI factors could have influenced the explained variance to some degree.…”

“…Furthermore, increased cognitive impairment and the presence of neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) were negatively associated with QoL in both community-dwelling people and nursing home residents with dementia [2,3,[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] . Of the NPS studied, especially depression was strongly associated with lower QoL scores [5,[7][8][9][10][11][14][15][16] . In addition, apathy, psychosis, and agitation are negatively associated with QoL [7,10,17] .…”

Severity of Dementia, Anosognosia, and Depression in Relation to the Quality of Life of Patients with Alzheimer Disease: Discrepancies Between Patients and Caregivers

“…(AD) This research has shown that in patients higher depression scores, (2-4) the presence of behavioral disorders (5-7) and greater functional deficits (8,9) all have negative effects on QoLp. Among caregivers, poorer ratings of QoLp have been shown to be associated with functional deficits (10,11) and behavioral disorders (3,9) in the patient and with burden (3) and depression (12,13) in the caregiver.…”

“…(AD) This research has shown that in patients higher depression scores, (2-4) the presence of behavioral disorders (5-7) and greater functional deficits (8,9) all have negative effects on QoLp. Among caregivers, poorer ratings of QoLp have been shown to be associated with functional deficits (10,11) and behavioral disorders (3,9) in the patient and with burden (3) and depression (12,13) in the caregiver. Some authors have also reported that perceptions of QoLp are affected by sociodemographic and contextual factors such as the caregiver's gender (14), his or her relationship to the patient, (15)(16)(17)) the patient's place of residence (2,3) or the environmental conditions.…”

Quality of life of people with dementia in nursing homes in Austria: A cross-sectional study

“…[53] It should be taken into account that the results of proxy measures, like in our study, can be lower and also may differ from the results of self-assessment. [42,54,55] …”