Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-19T01:25:13.087Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Self-reported quality of life ratings of people with dementia: the role of attitudes to aging

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2012

Richard Trigg ,
Simon Watts ,
Roy Jones ,
Anne Tod  and
Rachel Elliman
Richard Trigg*
Affiliation:
Division of Psychology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK
Simon Watts
Affiliation:
Division of Psychology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK
Roy Jones
Affiliation:
Research Institute for the Care of Older People, Bath, UK
Anne Tod
Affiliation:
Research Institute for the Care of Older People, Bath, UK
Rachel Elliman
Affiliation:
Research Institute for the Care of Older People, Bath, UK
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: Dr. Richard Trigg, Division of Psychology, Nottingham Trent University, Burton Street, Nottingham, NG1 4BU, UK. Phone: +44-0-115-8485603. Email: [email protected].
Get access

Abstract

Background: Attitudes to aging have not previously been assessed in people with dementia. The possession of positive life attitudes into older age has the potential to induce resilience to health changes and may explain the discrepancy between self-reported and proxy ratings of quality of life (QoL). The aim of this study was to explore the attitudes of people with dementia to determine the main factors that predict these attitudes and any relationship that exists with self-reported QoL.

Methods: Fifty-six participants with dementia were recruited from a memory clinic setting. The Bath Assessment of Subjective Quality of Life in Dementia, Attitudes to Aging Questionnaire (AAQ), Memory Functioning Scale, Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study Activities of Daily Living Inventory, and Mini-Mental State Examination were administered. The AAQ was also completed by 86 community-dwelling older adults without dementia.

Results: Participants with dementia displayed a significantly stronger endorsement of the negative attitude that aging is a time of psychosocial loss than those without dementia. Regression analyses suggest this negative attitude acts as a partial mediator in the relationship between the person's level of insight and self-reported QoL.

Conclusions: Negative attitudes to aging had a direct impact on the self-reported QoL ratings of people with dementia. The view of aging as a time of psychosocial loss was most significant for people with dementia and suggests that negative stereotypes of dementia need to be challenged. In order to promote QoL, care should focus on abilities that the person retains rather than what has been lost.

Keywords

Alzheimer'squality of lifelossinsightawarenessBASQIDself-report
Type
Research Article
Information
International Psychogeriatrics , Volume 24 , Issue 7 , July 2012 , pp. 1085 - 1093
Copyright
Copyright © International Psychogeriatric Association 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Albrecht, G. and Devlieger, P. (1999). The disability paradox: high quality of life against all odds. Social Science & Medicine, 48, 977–988.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
American Psychiatric Association (2000). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM-IV-TR. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.Google Scholar
Banerjee, S. et al. (2009). What do we know about quality of life in dementia? A review of the emerging evidence on the predictive and explanatory value of disease specific measures of health related quality of life in people with dementia. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 24, 15–24.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chachamovich, E., Fleck, M., Laidlaw, K. and Power, M. (2008). Impact of major depression and subsyndromal symptoms on quality of life and attitudes toward aging in an international sample of older adults. The Gerontologist, 48, 593–602.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clare, L. et al. (2002). Assessing awareness in early-stage Alzheimer's disease: development and piloting of the memory awareness rating scale. Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, 12, 341–362.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diener, F. (1984). Subjective well-being. Psychological Bulletin, 95, 542–575.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Downs, M. (2010). Person-centered care as supportive care. In Hughes, J. L., Lloyd-Williams, M. and Sachs, G. A., (eds.), Supportive Care for the Person With Dementia (pp. 235–244). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Folstein, M. F., Folstein, S. E. and McHugh, P. R. (1975). “Mini-mental state”: a practical method for grading the cognitive state of patients for the clinician. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 12, 189–198.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Galasko, D. et al. (1997). An inventory to assess activities of daily living for clinical trials in Alzheimer's disease: the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study. Alzheimer's Disease & Associated Disorders, 11, S33–39.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hess, T. M., Hinson, J. T. and Statham, J. A. (2004). Explicit and implicit stereotype activation effects on memory: do age and awareness moderate the impact of priming? Psychology and Aging, 19, 495–505.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Heyink, J. (1993). Adaptation and well-being. Psychological Reports, 73, 1331–1342.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Katona, C., Livingston, G., Cooper, C., Ames, D., Brodaty, H. and Chiu, E. (2007). International Psychogeriatric Association consensus statement on defining and measuring treatment benefits in dementia. International Psychogeriatrics, 19, 345–354.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kitwood, T. (1993). Person and process in dementia. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 8, 541–545.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laidlaw, K., Power, M. J. and Schmidt, S. (2007). The Attitudes to Ageing Questionnaire (AAQ): development and psychometric properties. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 22, 367–379.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Levy, B. (1996). Improving memory in old age by implicit self-stereotyping. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 1092–1107.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Levy, B. R. and Myers, L. M. (2004). Preventive health behaviours influenced by self-perceptions of aging. Preventive Medicine, 39, 625–629.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Levy, B. R., Hausdorff, J. M., Henke, R. and Wei, J. Y. (2000). Reducing cardiovascular stress with positive self-stereotypes of aging. Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 55, 205–213.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Levy, B. R., Slade, M. D., Kunkel, S. R. and Kasl, S. V. (2002). Longevity increased by positive self-perceptions of aging. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83, 261–270.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Logsdon, R., Gibbons, L. E., McCurry, S. M. and Teri, L. (2002). Assessing quality of life in older adults with cognitive impairment. Psychosomatic Medicine, 64, 510–519.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
MacKinnon, D. P., Lockwood, C. M., Hoffman, J. M., West, S. G. and Sheets, V. (2002). A comparison of methods to test the significance of the mediated effect. Psychological Methods, 7, 83–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Novella, J. L. et al. (2001). Agreement between patients’ and proxies’ reports of quality of life in Alzheimer's disease. Quality of Life Research, 10, 443–452.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ormel, J. (1983). Neuroticism and well-being inventories: measuring traits or states? Psychological Medicine, 13, 165–176.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Scholl, J. M. and Sabat, S. R. (2008). Stereotypes, stereotype threat and ageing: implications for the understanding and treatment of people with Alzheimer's disease. Ageing and Society, 28, 103–130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tombaugh, T. N. and McIntyre, N. J. (1992). The Mini-Mental State Examination: a comprehensive review. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 40, 922–935.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tourangeau, R., Rips, L. J. and Rasinski, K. (2000). The Psychology of Survey Response. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trigg, R., Jones, R. W. and Skevington, S. M. (2007a). Can people with mild to moderate dementia provide reliable answers to self-report QoL items? Age and Ageing, 36, 663–669.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trigg, R., Skevington, S. M. and Jones, R. W. (2007b). How can we best assess the quality of life of people with dementia? The Bath Assessment of Subjective Quality of Life in Dementia (BASQID). Gerontologist, 4, 789–797.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trigg, R., Watts, S., Jones, R. and Tod, A. (2011). Predictors of quality of life ratings from persons with dementia: the role of insight. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 26, 83–91.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Whitehouse, P. J. (1999). Quality of life in Alzheimer's disease: future directions. Journal of Mental Health and Aging, 5, 107–111.Google Scholar
Whitehouse, P. J. and George, , , D. (2008). The Myth of Alzheimer's: What You Aren't Being Told About Today's Most Dreaded Diagnosis. New York: St Martin's Griffin.Google Scholar