Quality of life in patients with mild Alzheimer disease: the mediator role of mindfulness and spirituality

Abstract

Objectives: This study examined the mediator role of mindfulness and spirituality in the relationship between psychological morbidity, awareness of the disease, functionality, social support, family satisfaction, and quality of life (QoL) in patients with mild AD. Method: The sample consisted of 128 patients who answered the Cognitive and Affective Mindfulness Scale-Revised (CAMS-R), the Assessment Scale of Psychosocial Impact of the Diagnosis of Dementia (ASPIDD), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scales (HADS), the Satisfaction with Social Support Scale (SSSS), the Family Satisfaction Scale (FSS), the Spiritual and Religious Attitudes in Dealing with Illness (SpREUK), the Index of Barthel, and the Quality of Life-Alzheimer's Disease (QoL-AD). Results: Mindfulness and spirituality mediated the relationship between functionality, awareness of the disease, family satisfaction and QoL. Psychological morbidity had a direct negative impact on QoL and was negatively associated with awareness of the disease, family satisfaction and social support. Mindfulness was negatively associated with spirituality and the latter was negatively associated with QoL. More social support was associated with greater awareness of the disease and family satisfaction. More functionality, awareness of the disease and family satisfaction contributed to more QoL and this relationship was mediated by mindfulness and spirituality. Conclusion: Interventions directed at the promotion of the QoL of patients with mild AD should focus on the promotion of mindfulness skills in AD patients, in addition to the reduction of psychological morbidity and the promotion of functionality, awareness of the disease, family relationships and social support.

Fear of COVID-19 and Mental Health: The Role of Mindfulness in During Time of Crisis

“…Empirically, an immense number of studies demonstrated that increased levels of mindfulness is associated with decreased levels of anxiety and depression (Fong &Ho, 2020;Li et al, 2020;MacDonald & Olsen, 2020;Makadi & Koszycki, 2020;Montero-Marin et al, 2020;Soo, Kiernan&Anderson, 2020). Moreover, several studies highlighted the mitigative effect of mindfulness on interpersonal problems (Janovsky, Clark & Rock, 2019), psychological distress (Masuda & Wendell, 2010), and particularly anxiety and depression (An, Fu, Yuan, Zhang&Xu, 2019;Lima et al, 2019). Taken together, the ndings of current study suggested that decreased levels of Coronavirus fear contributes to greater levels of mindfulness which in turn leads to decreased risk to develop anxiety and depressive symptoms.…”

Fear of COVID-19 and Mental Health: The Role of Mindfulness in During Times of Crisis

“…Empirically, numerous studies demonstrated that increased levels of mindfulness are associated with decreased levels of anxiety and depression (Flett et al, 2020 ; Fong & Ho, 2020 ; Li et al, 2020 ; MacDonald & Olsen, 2020 ; Makadi & Koszycki, 2020 ; Soo et al, 2020 ). Moreover, several studies highlighted the mitigative effects of mindfulness on interpersonal problems (Janovsky et al, 2019 ), psychological distress (Masuda & Wendell, 2010 ), and, particularly, anxiety and depression (An et al, 2019 ; Lima et al, 2019 ). Taken together, the findings of the current study suggested that decreased levels of fear of COVID-19 contribute to greater levels of mindfulness, which in turn leads to a decreased risk of developing anxiety and depressive symptoms.…”

Pathways to well-being: Untangling the causal relationships among biopsychosocial variables

“…Even for the development of conditions like dementia, the PàB pathway may play a significant role, considering that large longitudinal studies show psychological stress and anxiety are significant risk factors for developing cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease later in life (Bisht et al, 2018;Escher et al, 2019;Gimson et al, 2018;Justice, 2018). Further, psychological interventions that tend to reduce stress appear to be beneficial for patients with dementia, capable of modifying the course of the disease (Larouche et al, 2015;Lima et al, 2019;Russell-Williams et al, 2018). Studies have also demonstrated that engaging in cognitive tasks reduce the activity of the DMN (Buckner et al, 2008;Raichle et al, 2001) and this may explain why engaging in intellectual activities appear to significantly lower the risk of dementia (Blacker and Weuve, 2018;Lee, 2018;Sajeev et al, 2016;Yates et al, 2016), as well as why educated individuals have a lower rate of dementia (Ngandu et al, 2007;Qiu et al, 2009).…”