Highlights
- •What is the primary question addressed by this study? How does baseline discrepancy in assessment of everyday preferences between persons with cognitive impairment and proxy ratings of care partners predict longitudinal changes in neuropsychiatric symptoms for persons with cognitive impairment?
- •What is the main finding of this study? In this longitudinal study, baseline discrepancy in assessment of importance of “social engagement” preferences between persons with cognitive impairment and their care partners, where the care partner underestimates preferences importance, is associated with an average higher burden of neuropsychiatric symptoms across follow-up time.
- •What is the meaning of the finding? This study yields new insights into understanding neuropsychiatric symptoms for persons across the spectrum of severity of cognitive impairment and suggests that resolving unmet needs around “social engagement” may have implications in reducing severity of neuropsychiatric symptoms across time.
ABSTRACT
Objectives
Neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) of dementia are common and may be driven by inability
of persons with cognitive impairment (CI) to communicate needs. We addressed the relevance
of this unmet-needs model to burden of NPS among persons with milder CI.
Methods
The sample included 48 dyads of persons with CI and their care partners. NPS were
measured at baseline and follow-up (mean 486 days +/-107 SD). Mixed random and fixed
effects longitudinal models were used to evaluate impact of discrepancies between
persons with CI and their care partners in everyday preferences (baseline) on changes
in NPS over time.
Results
Higher levels of underestimation of “social engagement” preferences of persons with
CI by care partners were associated with a higher average burden of NPS across all
follow-up.
Conclusions
This study suggests that unmet-needs may be a useful construct for understanding etiology
for NPS across the spectrum of severity of cognitive impairment.
KEY WORDS
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References
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Wilkins J.M., Locascio J.J., Gunther J.M., et al.: Longitudinal differences in everyday preferences: comparisons between people with cognitive impairment and their care Partners. Int J Geriatr Psychiatry 2021; in press. Article DOI: 10.1002/gps.5620
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: October 24, 2021
Accepted:
October 19,
2021
Received in revised form:
October 13,
2021
Received:
September 7,
2021
Identification
Copyright
© 2021 American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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