Dissertation Methodology on the Issue of Quality of Life in Late-Stage Dementia

Tools and Data Collection Methods

The Norwegian version of the Quality of Life in Late-Stage Dementia (QUALID) was used for measuring the quality of life (QoL) among the study participants. The measurements of the QUALID were rated on five points of the assessed variables such as frequency of occurrence, beneficial and negative dimensions, evident mood and performance (Olsen et al., 2016). A low QUALID score implied low QoL and vice versa for high scores. The Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) was used in measuring the cognitive and functional performance of the participants.

Studies indicate that the CDR staging acts an adequate substitute for assessment and rating of dementia among nursing home residents. CDR also helps in determining the severity of dementia. Actigraphy was used in measuring multiple variables of the study including sleep patterns, physical activity levels, and light exposure (Olsen et al., 2016). Actigraphy consists of different measurements such as ActiSleep, Actigraph, and Pensacola which implies its ability to measure the different aspects of the study. The scoring and sleep functions of the ActiLife software were used to process data recorded by Actigraphy. ActiSleep is important in recording the activity of participants and exposure to light (Olsen et al., 2016). The ActiSleep is also a portable device that is worn conveniently without causing discomfort of inconvenience to the members. The default algorithm of the Actilife necessitated the manual monitoring of the awakenings. Physical activity levels were calculated using the Freedson Adult cut points in the ActiLife.

Data Collection Procedure

The data available from the ClinicalTrial.gov; NCT02008630 and NCT 01998490 were used to select information about the study participants. The sources have various data relating to People With Dementia (PWD) in Norway who formed the focus of research (Olsen et al., 2016). Three counties in the South Eastern Norway were delineated to recruit two groups of participants including nursing home and day care centers (Olsen et al., 2016). The study involved 15 nursing homes that have adopted medical units for PWD and 23 approved day care centers. Each of the 15 consenting nursing institutions was required to admit about 5 to 8 individuals. Eligible participants had to meet the age limit of 65 years and above; have been diagnosed with dementia or cognitive deficiency.

The cognitive deficiency had to below 25 as recorded by the Mini-Mental State Examination Test. 209 participants met the inclusion criteria and were involved in the study. Nonetheless, death and withdrawal were some of the challenges that reduced the number of qualified participants to 195 individuals (Olsen et al., 2016). As an experimental study, a control consisting of 11 PWDs in nursing homes and eight home-dwelling PDWs was set up. Each member was educated on the operation and use of all the study tools hence their informed consent. Furthermore, they reserved the liberty to withdraw from the study. Ethics was upheld in the survey since the equipment such as ActiGraph ensured utmost confidentiality since they did not invade the participants need for privacy (Olsen et al., 2016). The information collected was solely those required for the comprehensive assessment of study participants.

Data Analysis

The data analysis procedure was predominantly inferential and involved various tools. Some of the tools include IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and one way ANOVA. IBM SPSS statistics version 23.0 was used to assess all the data collected since it provides consistent outcomes in social studies (Olsen et al., 2016). On the other hand, one-way ANOVA was used in determining the differences between study groups of hospitalized PWD and PWD residing at home.

Continuous variables such as Total Sleep Time (TST) and Physical activity levels (PAL) were also evaluated using one-way ANOVA. Categorical data such as the light exposure was analyzed using chi-square while the analysis of the association between institutionalization and QoL was done through multiple regression (Olsen et al., 2016). The three categories of cognitive levels drawn from the assessment were analyzed using the CDR test.

Reference

Olsen, C., Pedersen, I., Bergland, A., Enders-Slegers, M. J., Joranson, N., Calogiuri, G., & Ihlebaek, C. (2016). Differences in quality of life in home-dwelling persons and nursing home residents with dementiaa cross-sectional study. BMC geriatrics, 16(1), 137. DOI 10.1186/s12877-016-0312-4