Everyday action in dementia: evidence for differential deficits in Alzheimer's disease versus subcortical vascular dementia.
The relationship between dementia diagnosis and everyday action (e.g., meal preparation, grooming) is not well understood. This study examines differences between individuals diagnosed with vascular dementia (VaD; n = 25) versus Alzheimer's disease (AD; n = 23) on the Naturalistic Action Test (NAT; Schwartz et al., 2003), a performance-based measure that includes three tasks of increasing complexity. The percentage of task steps accomplished, number of errors, and performance times were recorded for each task. While the groups did not differ in dementia severity or overall impairment on the NAT, the VaD group committed more errors (3.3 vs. 1.6, p = 02). The VaD group also accomplished significantly fewer steps when salient distractor objects were present (74.0% vs. 91.3%, p < .01). Correlations between NAT variables and neuropsychological tests suggest the executive control deficits associated with VaD may contribute to specific action difficulties, such as distractor interference and inefficient, error-prone action on complex tasks. In AD, everyday action may be negatively influenced by episodic memory failures. Thus, dementia diagnosis has relevance to everyday function.
Giovannetti
Tania
T
Department of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122, USA. tgio@temple.edu
Schmidt
Kara S
KS
Gallo
Jennifer L
JL
Sestito
Nicole
N
Libon
David J
DJ
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D015140:Dementia, Vascular / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors