Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a care-programme by district nurses among elderly with dementia symptoms and their primary informal caregiver.
Recruitment & Eligibility
- Status
- Completed
- Sex
- Not specified
- Target Recruitment
- 100
Elderly are eligible for trial entry if they are 65 years or over, live outside of institutional settings, suffer from dementia symptoms, and have a primary informal caregiver. Both caregiver and patient should have a good command of the Dutch language. Patients with dementia symptoms are persons with multiple cognitive impairments (i.e. memory impairments, aphasia, apraxia, agnosia, and impairment in executive functioning).
It is assumed that these dementia symptoms lead to significant limitations in social functioning, progressive decline in general functioning.
The following exclusion criteria are applied at baseline:
assistance by an outpatient geriatric team for cognitive problems, terminal illness, participation in other research projects and institutionalization.
Study & Design
- Study Type
- Interventional
- Study Design
- Not specified
- Primary Outcome Measures
Name Time Method 1. Sense of mastery over the caregiver task as measured with the Sense of Competence Questionnaire (SCQ);<br /><br>2. Quality of life by means of the MOS 36-item short-form health survey (SF-36); <br /><br>3. Psychological well-being as determined with the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D).
- Secondary Outcome Measures
Name Time Method 1. Days until institutionalization of the patient as checked with the GPs;<br /><br>2. Quality of life of the patient as measured with the Dementia Quality of Life Instrument (DQOL);<br /><br>3. Days until death of the patient as checked with the GPs;<br /><br>4. Hospital days of the patient by means of cost diaries.<br />