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Assessing Alzheimer's disease patients' quality of life: Discrepancies between patient and caregiver perspectives
Author(s) -
Andrieu Sandrine,
Coley Nicola,
Rolland Yves,
Cantet Christelle,
Arnaud Catherine,
Guyonnet Sophie,
Nourhashemi Fati,
Grand Alain,
Vellas Bruno
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
alzheimer's and dementia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.713
H-Index - 118
eISSN - 1552-5279
pISSN - 1552-5260
DOI - 10.1016/j.jalz.2015.09.003
Subject(s) - apathy , quality of life (healthcare) , caregiver burden , medicine , disease , activities of daily living , cohort , alzheimer's disease , depressive symptoms , cognition , depression (economics) , clinical psychology , gerontology , dementia , psychology , psychiatry , nursing , economics , macroeconomics
Quality of life (QOL) is an important dimension to consider in Alzheimer's disease (AD), but few large‐scale studies have analyzed self and caregiver reports of patient QOL. Methods Patient QOL was evaluated in a cohort of 574 AD patients with the QOL‐AD scale over 2 years. Results Caregiver reports of patient QOL were lower at baseline than self reports. Older patient age was associated with overestimation of QOL by caregivers, whereas neuropsychiatric inventory score and caregiver burden were associated with underestimation. Activities of daily living limitation, depressive symptoms, and caregiver burden were systematically associated with poorer QOL, whereas caregiver relationship and apathy were associated with poorer QOL only for self reports or caregiver reports, respectively. Cognitive function and professional care were not associated with QOL. Self‐rated patient QOL did not change over time, whereas disease severity markers and caregiver‐rated patient QOL declined. Discussion It is important to assess both self and caregiver ratings when assessing patient QOL.