| Popis: |
Little research has been conducted on examining the relationship between caring interventions such as adult day programs (ADPs) and the quality of life (QOL) of individuals with Alzheimer’s disease. Our study objective was to investigate the merits of attending ADPs on the QOL of these individuals. We hypothesized that individuals with Alzheimer’s disease who attended ADP had higher QOL than those who did not. We also hypothesized that individuals with Alzheimer’s disease who attended ADP enjoyed comparable QOL as their non-diseased counterparts. To explore these issues, we piloted a cross-sectional study in Durham, Ontario, Canada. We recruited 130 participants at five ADPs and at six caregiver support groups in the region. Among them, there were 73 disease-free ADP clients, 28 ADP clients with Alzheimer’s disease and 29 individuals with Alzheimer’s disease who did not attend ADPs. Study procedures involved primary data collection using assisted self-report questionnaires and a 13-item quality-of-life scale. This current paper provided a detailed description of the study process. We also provided results that showed overall QOL scores for individuals with Alzheimer’s disease who attended ADP were comparable to those without the disease (2.7 vs. 2.9, p=0.1), whereas the scores were much lower for individuals with Alzheimer’s disease who did not attend ADP than those who attended ADP (1.9 vs. 2.7, p=0.0001). Individuals who attended ADP consistently provided higher ratings than those who did not attend ADP. Based on our findings, we concluded that attending ADPs may be partially responsible for the observed differences in QOL. |
