Abstract Details

Title Should Patients With Dementia Define Their Own Quality of Life: A Systematic Review

Topic Practice, Policy, and Ethics

Presentation(s) P8 - Poster Session 8 (8:00 AM-9:00 AM)

Poster/Presentation
Number 7-013

Objective To perform a systematic review of the literature to evaluate the current scientific knowledge regarding quality of life (QOL) in people with dementia (PWD).

Background QOL is an ambiguous term used to describe the overall satisfaction with life experienced by a person. QOL is difficult to measure due to its subjective nature, and it becomes significantly more difficult to assess in people cognitive deficits. This is due in part to their perceived inability to self-report their QOL.

Design/Methods A systematic review of the literature was performed using a PubMed database search with the terms “quality of life” and “dementia.” The search was limited to English articles published between 01/01/1995 and 09/01/2018 that addressed the research question — what defines QOL in PWD over the age of 65 and how was it measured?

Results Of the 620 articles found, 19 met the criteria for inclusion. Of the studies, 7 compared QOL by proxy (PRQOL) with self-rated QOL (SRQOL), while the rest reported only PRQOL. It was demonstrated that SRQOL could be obtained in PWD with a MMSE as low as 6. PRQOL was consistently rated significantly lower than SRQOL. The components that proxy responders considered most relevant were neuropsychiatric symptoms and worse cognitive function; however, neither were consistently a major determining factor for SRQOL. Pain and comorbid conditions were the factors that had the largest impact on SRQOL.

Conclusions

The majority of studies rely solely on PRQOL for PWD. This review suggests that PRQOL may not provide an accurate measure of QOL. When determining treatments to improve QOL outcomes for PWD, both self and proxy reports should be utilized to ensure that all needs are addressed to facilitate the largest increase in QOL. Research should be done that permits PWD to self-report QOL in addition to proxy-reports to lead to allow for more impactful interventions.

Authors/Disclosures
Helen B. Burks, MD (Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center) PRESENTER	No disclosure on file
	No disclosure on file
	No disclosure on file

�鶹��ýӳ��

�鶹��ýӳ��

Abstract Details