Needs for Care, Service Use and Quality of Life in Dementia: 12-Month Follow-Up of the Actifcare Study in Portugal

CONCLUSION: People with dementia displayed complex biopsychosocial unmet needs. Their cognitive-functional decline over one year was not accompanied by a corresponding increase in any pattern of unmet need, nor of service use. Reliance on informal care (namely supervision) may have contributed to this. Caregiving-related outcomes evolved according to different trends, although stability was almost the rule. Primary carers were even more present at follow-up, without an apparently heavier toll on their own needs, burden, and quality of life. Overall, this longitudinal study comprehensively assessed Portuguese community-dwelling people with dementia. Despite the lack of generalizability, participants' needs remained overall stable and partly unmet over one year. Longer follow-up periods are needed to understand such complex processes.PMID:38457746 | DOI:10.20344/amp.20427

Source: Acta Medica Portuguesa - March 8, 2024 Category: General Medicine Authors: Manuel Gon çalves-Pereira Maria J Marques Regina F Alves Ana Verdelho Concei ção Balsinha Lu ísa Alves Teresa Alves Reis Bob Woods Marjolein De Vugt Frans Verhey Actifcare Consortium Source Type: research