| Title |
Alzheimer’s disease severity and its association with patient and caregiver quality of life in Japan: results of a community-based survey
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
BMC Geriatrics, June 2018
|
| DOI | 10.1186/s12877-018-0831-2 |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
William Montgomery, Amir Goren, Kristin Kahle-Wrobleski, Tomomi Nakamura, Kaname Ueda |
| Abstract |
Alzheimer's disease (AD) dementia, a progressive neurodegenerative disease, exerts significant burden upon patients, caregivers, and healthcare systems globally. The current study investigated the associations between AD dementia patient disease severity and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of both patients (proxy report) and their caregivers living in Japan, as well as caregiving-related comorbidities such as depression. This cross-sectional study used self-reported data from caregivers of people diagnosed with AD dementia by a healthcare provider in Japan. Caregivers were identified via online panels and invited to participate in an online survey between 2014 and 2015. Caregivers completed survey items for themselves, in addition to providing proxy measures for patients with AD dementia for whom they were caring. Patient and caregiver HRQoL was measured using the EuroQoL 5-Dimension (EQ-5D). Additional outcomes for caregivers of AD dementia patients included the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) of depressive symptomology, as well as comorbidities experienced since initiating caregiving for their AD dementia patients. These outcomes were examined as a function of AD dementia severity, as measured by long-term care insurance (LTCI) categories. Bivariate analyses between LTCI and outcomes were conducted using independent t-tests and chi-square tests. Multivariable analyses, controlling for potential confounders, were conducted using generalized linear models (GLMs) specifying a normal distribution. Across 300 caregiver respondents, multivariable results revealed that increasing AD dementia severity was significantly associated with poorer patient and caregiver EQ-5D scores and a high proportion of caregivers (30.0%) reported PHQ-9 scores indicative of major depressive disorder (MDD). The most frequent comorbidities experienced after becoming caregivers of AD dementia patients included hypertension (12.7%) and insomnia (11.0%). Depression and other comorbidities did not differ significantly by patient severity. The current study provides unique insight into the specific degree of incremental burden associated with increasing AD dementia severity among patients and caregivers alike. Importantly, greater disease severity was associated with poorer quality of life among both patients and caregivers. These results suggest that earlier detection and treatment of AD dementia may provide an opportunity to reduce the burden of disease for patients, caregivers, and society at large. |
X Demographics
The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 12 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 6 | 50% |
| Spain | 1 | 8% |
| Unknown | 5 | 42% |
Demographic breakdown
| Type | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Members of the public | 9 | 75% |
| Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 2 | 17% |
| Science communicators (journalists, bloggers, editors) | 1 | 8% |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 184 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Unknown | 184 | 100% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Student > Master | 22 | 12% |
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 16 | 9% |
| Student > Bachelor | 13 | 7% |
| Researcher | 12 | 7% |
| Other | 10 | 5% |
| Other | 31 | 17% |
| Unknown | 80 | 43% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Nursing and Health Professions | 37 | 20% |
| Medicine and Dentistry | 20 | 11% |
| Psychology | 12 | 7% |
| Social Sciences | 8 | 4% |
| Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science | 5 | 3% |
| Other | 21 | 11% |
| Unknown | 81 | 44% |
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 16. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 02 January 2019.
All research outputs
#2,316,619
of 25,383,225 outputs
Outputs from BMC Geriatrics
#565
of 3,639 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#46,019
of 335,441 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Geriatrics
#17
of 55 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,383,225 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 90th percentile: it's in the top 10% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 3,639 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 10.3. This one has done well, scoring higher than 84% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 335,441 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 86% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 55 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 70% of its contemporaries.