Influence of Perceived Baseline Contact on the Acceptability of a Personal Contact Intervention Among People Living With Dementia

Abstract

Background: Living with dementia can be a lonely experience, undermining older adults’ quality of life. Evidence supports that personal contact interventions can address older adults’ loneliness. However, effects have been small to date, and little is known about how one’s perceptions of baseline contact may influence an intervention’s use and effects. The purpose of this study was to explore how baseline contact, as perceived by older adults living with dementia, may be associated with the acceptability of a personal contact intervention. Methods: This descriptive study was a secondary analysis of data that we collected from 15 people living with mild to moderate dementia in a long-term care home who participated in Connecting Today. Connecting Today is a personal contact intervention that involves 30 minutes of scheduled, unscripted interaction between persons living with dementia and a family member, friend or research assistant. Visits occurred for six weeks, face-to-face or by phone. We compared groups that perceived that they had high (i.e., weekly, n=8) versus low (i.e., monthly or unknown, n=7) contact at baseline to explore differences in acceptability. We measured perceived acceptability (adapted Treatment Perception and Preferences Questionnaire) and the amount and reasons reported for missing data and study withdrawal. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the data, and proportions and frequencies were compared in tables and charts to explore differences between groups.Results: In visits one and two when there were little missing data, a larger proportion (85.7% to 100%) of low contact participants reported feeling better, that the visits helped them, and that the visits were easy ‘mostly’ or ‘a lot’, as compared to the high contact group (37.5% to 62.5%). Retention and attrition after visit two further supported that Connecting Today may be more acceptable for people with low perceived baseline contact: the majority of missing data (71%) and all study withdrawals were observed in the high contact group. Conclusions: Testing the hypotheses generated in this study about the influence of perceived baseline contact upon acceptability in larger feasibility and effectiveness studies will support development of tailored, theory-based personal contact interventions.