View clinical trials related to Dementia.
Filter by:This study aims to investigate whether self-compassion is associated with older adult's quality of life after a diagnosis of dementia, and whether perceived threat posed by dementia mediates this relationship. Self-compassion has been found to be positive in supporting individuals in times of difficulty, in adjustment processes and older adults' wellbeing. While different factors have begun to be identified which are associated with individuals' psychological wellbeing and adjustment following a dementia diagnosis, little is known about the influence of self-compassion. Participants will be recruited via NHS memory clinics, Join Dementia Research and from the community via third-sector organisations. Individuals will be invited to attend a Microsoft Teams/telephone appointment in which informed consent and cognitive screening processes will take place at the start. Eligible participants will then be invited to continue to complete measures administered by a researcher and an interview question. Participants will be offered the opportunity to complete the measures in a second session (within 8 weeks) or using the online survey software, Qualtrics, if preferred. A small pilot study (n = 5) will take place prior to the main study.
INTRODUCTION AND RATIONALE It has been estimated that at least 50% of the home living persons with dementia in the Netherlands receive little or no formal care and support (Zorgstandaard Dementie, 2013). Reasons why persons with dementia and their informal caregivers receive no formal care vary, include absence of diagnosis, denial of illness, embarrassment or the complexity of the care and referral system. A common concern among health care professionals is that by the time the person with dementia or informal caregiver do seek or receive formal care it may be too late. The difficulties at home may already be so severe that there is little that community-based care can do and admission to residential care may follow soon after. Appropriate support at an earlier stage may prevent more serious difficulties and postpone admission to residential care. Therefore, health care professionals are looking for strategies to reach persons with dementia and caregivers in an earlier stage of dementia and encourage them to accept some form of help or support. The rationale of this study is to investigate how persons living with dementia and their close others can be encouraged to accept support and whether support at an early stage is effective in preventing severe deterioration in wellbeing, behavioural difficulties and high care costs later on. OBJECTIVES - Estimate the effect of EE on caregiver self-efficacy compared to usual care - Estimate the effect of EE on the total care costs of caregiver and person with dementia compared to usual care - Estimate the cost-effectiveness and cost-utility of EE compared to usual care - Perform a process evaluation to monitor delivery of EE and experiences of persons with dementia, caregivers and care professionals - Explore treatment responsiveness of EE in terms of self-efficacy and quality of life STUDY DESIGN Pragmatic, cluster randomised controlled trial. STUDY POPULATION Informal caregivers and people with early-stage dementia, who are community dwelling and receive little or no dementia-related formal ADL care. INTERVENTION The intervention (Eerder Erbij, EE) is a person-centred, manual-based intervention consisting of education, information and a support group. MAIN STUDY PARAMETERS/ENDPOINTS Primary: self-efficacy. Cost-utility: EQ5D, RUD. Secondary: quality-of-life, caregiver burden. DATA COLLECTION Measurements consist of questionnaires (total duration is approximately 1 hour; administered at home; take place at baseline, 3, 6, and 12 months).
The purpose of this preliminary study is to examine the effects of adult day service use on subjective and physiological measures of stress in 50 Black informal caregivers for individuals with dementia (IWD). The PI of the proposed study has substantial training in primary data collection and complex-survey secondary data analysis, she also has the fundamental knowledge to investigate how sociocultural and behavioral factors can influence psychosocial stress. The proposed study will enroll participants from adult day service (ADS) nationally, to examine the effects of adult day service use on subjective and physiological measures of stress in 50 Black informal caregivers. The proposed study extends the current science on the use of ADS on subjective and physiological stress by 1) examining differential impacts of ADS specifically on subjective measures of stress for Black caregivers, 2) evaluating the impact of ADS use on physiological measures of stress among Black caregivers; and 3) examining the relationship between subjective indicators and physiological processes for Black caregivers.
Dementia is a chronic, progressive neurodegenerative disease characterized by acquired cognitive impairment as its core manifestation. The most common type of dementia is Alzheimer's Disease (AD), also known as "Senile Dementia," accounting for 60-80% of all dementia cases. Currently, there are approximately 10 million AD patients in China, with the number showing an increasing trend year by year, imposing a heavy economic and caregiving burden on families and society. Studies have shown that AD has a clinically silent period of 15 to 20 years (SCD\MCI), where the risk of developing dementia is ten times higher than that of healthy elderly individuals. Nearly 50% of MCI patients progress to dementia within 5 years, and about 14.1% of SCD patients develop dementia within the same timeframe. Early detection, diagnosis, and intervention are currently the most effective strategies for preventing and treating AD. Therefore, this study aims to verify the intervention effect of integrated cognitive intervention in high-risk populations for senile dementia (SCD, MCI) based on the cognitive rehabilitation model through randomized controlled trials, and to analyze attrition rates, participation rates, etc., which have good research and application value.
How can healthcare professionals recognize that a person with dementia is at the end of life? When people are dying, their physical, mental, and social abilities are gradually declining. No reliable method of predicting perceived dying currently exists although the technology is available (sensors, algorithms). The aim of Decoding Death and Dying in Dementia by Digital thanotyping (5-D) is to provide methods and tools to diagnose and describe dying to an unprecedented level of accuracy and robustness, within a timespan larger than is possible now, focusing on the case of dying people with dementia as one of the most vulnerable and difficult to study groups. 5-D combines clinical assessment tools with wearable sensing technology to monitor a) pain and distressing symptoms, b) behavioral and psychological symptoms in dementia (BPSD), c) oral changes, and to decode "the point of no return" as the beginning of perceived dying. To obtain this outcome in nursing home patients with dementia, the investigator will test the main hypothesis: from monitoring the evolution of thanotype components over time and their interdependencies, the prediction of the "point of no return" is possible. The objectives of 5-D are: O1. Collect data using sensors and validated assessment scales. O2. Develop estimation methods for BPSD from sensor measurements. O3. Develop digital tools to capture the expression of pain. O4. Determine the relationship between breathing and oral symptoms. O5. Develop models for symptom interdependencies at the end of life and the "point of no return". O6. Perform human-in-the-loop validation of developed tools, models, and algorithms. The ground-breaking interdisciplinary novelty of 5-D endeavors to enhance the understanding of end-of-life underlying pain and symptoms in people with dementia. Advancing our theoretical knowledge to uncover how, when, and why perceived dying can be identified opens the doors for transferable research across several scientific fields
The proposed study will establish the feasibility, acceptability and credibility of a novel live video dyadic resiliency intervention, Resilient Together for Dementia (RT-D), aimed at preventing chronic emotional distress and preserving quality of life among dyads at risk for chronic emotional distress early after a diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease or a related dementia (ADRD).
The improvement in health and welfare in modern society has led to an increase in life expectancy. Alternatively, the longer one lives, the more likely to experience deterioration in memory, cognitive ability, and executive function skills in our brains. While some cognitive impairments can be typical results of normal aging, a decline in spatial cognition can be a sign of dementia, especially Alzheimer's disease (AD). Based on the neuroplasticity of the brain even at old ages, there are some hopes to combat dementia by repeated use of cognitive exercises in the form of a serious game designed for older adults. A popular new technology to be used to design serious games is virtual reality (VR) designs. Aside from the gaming applications, the focus of VR experiments in medicine and neuroscience is to simulate a naturalistic environment to investigate brain function and/or use it for cognitive training. A virtual reality driving simulator (VRDS) has been developed by our team that is proposed to be installed in an existing car model at Riverview Health Center (RHC) dementia units. The VRDS has different levels of difficulty so that it can be utilized by people with different levels of cognitive impairments. However, in this study, the users will probably use only its level 1. The aim is to investigate the efficacy of the VRDS amongst institutionalized Alzheimer's/dementia patients, who are not capable of performing standard assessments. The goal is mainly to improve their mood and quality of life as many of these patients miss driving. Thus, their plausible mood change are assessed by asking the dementia unit nurses to share their observations of the patients in relation to VRDS usage; it will be a free-format anecdotal observation. In addition, while these patients are not expected to show any significant learning, playing this VRDS may improve patients' implicit memory; which can be observed by how well or poor they drive the simulated car; for example, how many times they crash to the curb or how many times they hit an animal, or how many times they ignore the red traffic light, etc.; these are reflected in the game's score. It is anticipated that this VRDS will have an overall positive effect on users' moods, and also it may result in an implicit memory improvement.
The purpose of this study is to test the Green Activity Program that was designed with Hispanic/Latino people living with memory challenges and their study partners to see if it can be done and if they enjoy the program. "Green activities" are nature activities that the person enjoys and can be done with other people or pets. For example, dog walking, hiking, outdoor yoga, and gardening are all green activities. The purpose of the program is to help people living with memory challenges participate in nature activities they enjoy. The goal of the program is to help people stay active and improve their health and well-being.
The National Institute on Aging together with the Alzheimer's Association (NIA-AA) recently proposed the ATN classification which is based upon the pathological processes present in Alzheimer's disease (amyloid, tau and neurodegeneration). The amyloid and tau status can be defined using cerebrospinal fluid analysis but also non-invasively using an amyloid or tau PET scan. The N status can be defined using an [18F]-FDG PET scan which is in Belgium part of standard of care. Recently, it has been demonstrated, using different amyloid PET tracers, that early-frame amyloid scans can be a surrogate for [18F]-FDG PET scan.
The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) is a screening test for detecting cognitive impairment that assesses several cognitive domains (attention and concentration, arithmetic and orientation, memory, etc.). The instructions as well as some test items of the MoCA are presented auditory (spoken). Consequently, performance on the MoCA may be co-dependent on hearing. Therefore, to rule out the possible negative influence of hearing loss on performance on the MoCA, a MoCA for individuals with hearing loss was recently developed. More specifically, the original MoCA was modified by providing the instructions audiovisually (spoken with visual support) as well as by replacing hearing-dependent items. Since replacing items may affect sensitivity and specificity, the MoCA for persons with hearing loss should be revalidated.