To investigate the influence of neuropsychiatric manifestations and functional
performance on quality of life (QOL) of AD patients and their caregivers/family
members.MethodsThe QOL-AD scale, Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), Geriatric Depression
Scale (GDS), Cornell and Beck Scales for Depression, Physical and
Instrumental-Self Maintenance scales (AIDL and ADL) and the Neuropsychiatric
Inventory (NPI) were applied to 60 patients with probable AD, mild (n=30) or
moderate (n=30) dementia, according to NINCDS-ADRDA and DSM-III-R criteria,
respectively, and to their caregivers/family members. The total scores on
the three QOL-AD versions were correlated with the measures previously
mentioned.ResultsThe QOL-AD patients' version displayed significant correlations with GDS
(–0.76 p<0.01), Cornell (–0.53 p<0.01) and NPI (–0.46 p<0.05) in
the mild dementia subgroup. The caregivers' version about patients' QOL
correlated with GDS (–0.48 p<0.01), Cornell (–0.57 p<0.01), NPI (–0.46
p<0.01) and AIDL (–0.36 p<0.05), while the caregivers' version about
their own QOL was significantly correlated with NPI (–0.43 p<0.01), AIDL
(–0.35 p<0.05) and Beck Depression (–0.67 p<0.01). In the moderate
dementia subgroup, significant correlations were observed with GDS (–0.45
p<0.05) and Cornell (–0.46 p<0.01). For the caregivers' version about
patients' QOL, significant correlations emerged with Cornell (–0.68
p<0.01), NPI (–0.67 p<0.01), AIDL (–0.41 p<0.05), ADL (–0.49,
p<0.01) and Beck Depression (–0.33 p<0.05). For the caregivers'
version about their own QOL, significant correlations with Beck Depression
(–0.54 p<0.01) and ADL (–0.38, p<0.05) were found.ConclusionThe symptoms presented in AD affected the QOL in patients and
caregivers/family members in both mild and moderate dementia.