TY - JOUR
T1 - Feasibility of Routine Quality of Life Measurement for People Living With Dementia in Long-Term Care
AU - Hoben, Matthias
AU - Banerjee, Sube
AU - Beeber, Anna S.
AU - Chamberlain, Stephanie A.
AU - Hughes, Laura
AU - O'Rourke, Hannah M.
AU - Stajduhar, Kelli
AU - Shrestha, Shovana
AU - Devkota, Rashmi
AU - Lam, Jenny
AU - Simons, Ian
AU - Dymchuk, Emily
AU - Corbett, Kyle
AU - Estabrooks, Carole A.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was funded by an Alzheimer Society of Canada New Investigator Grant (no. 21-16), held by M.H., and by M.H.’s Professorship in Continuing Care Policy Research, awarded by the Faculty of Nursing, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada (no grant number available).
Funding Information:
S.B. led the development of the DEMQOL system but derives no monetary benefit from its use. S.B. reports Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), UK Research and Innovation, and National Institute for Health Research institutional grant funding and personal fees and nonfinancial support from medicolegal reports, Lilly, personal fees for consultancy or educational work from Lilly, Axovant, Lundbeck, Nutricia, and the Hamad Medical Service. The other authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Authors
PY - 2022/7
Y1 - 2022/7
N2 - Objectives: Maximizing quality of life (QoL) is the ultimate goal of long-term dementia care. However, routine QoL measurement is rare in nursing home (NH) and assisted living (AL) facilities. Routine QoL measurement might lead to improvements in resident QoL. Our objective was to assess the feasibility of using DEMQOL-CH, completed by long-term care staff in video calls with researchers, to assess health-related quality of life (HrQoL) of NH and AL residents with dementia or other cognitive impairment. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting and Participants: We included a convenience sample of 5 NHs and 5 AL facilities in the Canadian province of Alberta. Forty-two care staff who had worked in the facility for ≥3 months completed DEMQOL-CH assessments of 183 residents who had lived in the facility for 3 months or more and were aged ≥65 years. Sixteen residents were assessed independently by 2 care staff to assess inter-rater reliability. Methods: We assessed HrQoL in people with dementia or other cognitive impairment using DEMQOL-CH, and assessed time to complete, inter-rater reliability, internal consistency reliability, and care staff ratings of feasibility of completing the DEMQOL-CH. Results: Average time to complete DEMQOL-CH was <5 minutes. Staff characteristics were not associated with time to complete or DEMQOL-CH scores. Inter-rater reliability [0.735, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.712-0.780] and internal consistency reliability (0.834, 95% CI: 0.779-0.864) were high. The DEMQOL-CH score varied across residents (mean = 84.8, standard deviation = 11.20, 95% CI: 83.2-86.4). Care aides and managers rated use of the DEMQOL-CH as highly feasible, acceptable, and valuable. Conclusions and Implications: This study provides a proof of concept that DEMQOL-CH can be used to assess HrQoL in NH and AL residents and provides initial indications of feasibility and resources required. DEMQOL-CH may be used to support actions to improve the QoL of residents.
AB - Objectives: Maximizing quality of life (QoL) is the ultimate goal of long-term dementia care. However, routine QoL measurement is rare in nursing home (NH) and assisted living (AL) facilities. Routine QoL measurement might lead to improvements in resident QoL. Our objective was to assess the feasibility of using DEMQOL-CH, completed by long-term care staff in video calls with researchers, to assess health-related quality of life (HrQoL) of NH and AL residents with dementia or other cognitive impairment. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting and Participants: We included a convenience sample of 5 NHs and 5 AL facilities in the Canadian province of Alberta. Forty-two care staff who had worked in the facility for ≥3 months completed DEMQOL-CH assessments of 183 residents who had lived in the facility for 3 months or more and were aged ≥65 years. Sixteen residents were assessed independently by 2 care staff to assess inter-rater reliability. Methods: We assessed HrQoL in people with dementia or other cognitive impairment using DEMQOL-CH, and assessed time to complete, inter-rater reliability, internal consistency reliability, and care staff ratings of feasibility of completing the DEMQOL-CH. Results: Average time to complete DEMQOL-CH was <5 minutes. Staff characteristics were not associated with time to complete or DEMQOL-CH scores. Inter-rater reliability [0.735, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.712-0.780] and internal consistency reliability (0.834, 95% CI: 0.779-0.864) were high. The DEMQOL-CH score varied across residents (mean = 84.8, standard deviation = 11.20, 95% CI: 83.2-86.4). Care aides and managers rated use of the DEMQOL-CH as highly feasible, acceptable, and valuable. Conclusions and Implications: This study provides a proof of concept that DEMQOL-CH can be used to assess HrQoL in NH and AL residents and provides initial indications of feasibility and resources required. DEMQOL-CH may be used to support actions to improve the QoL of residents.
KW - DEMQOL-CH
KW - Quality of life
KW - dementia
KW - feasibility
KW - long-term care
KW - measurement
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jamda.2021.07.018
DO - 10.1016/j.jamda.2021.07.018
M3 - Article
C2 - 34411540
AN - SCOPUS:85114822697
SN - 1525-8610
VL - 23
SP - 1221
EP - 1226
JO - Journal of the American Medical Directors Association
JF - Journal of the American Medical Directors Association
IS - 7
ER -