Relationship between quality of life and cognitive decline in dementia.
OBJECTIVE
We aimed to examine the association of cognitive decline with quality of life (QoL) in dementia compared to controls and to determine variables associated with QoL.


METHODS
Every subject was placed within a specific group depending on their designation by the Mini Mental State Examination and evaluated by the Alzheimer's Disease Related Quality of Life (ADRQL) and clinical assessments.


RESULTS
QoL for the mild dementia group was lower (p = 0.08) than that of controls. The very severe dementia group had a significantly lower QoL than the other dementia groups, which all had similar ADRQL scores. The only predictor of ADRQL scores was found to be the behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia.


CONCLUSIONS
There is no direct relationship between cognitive decline and QoL.
Clinical Psychology of Ageing, Qualidem Research Project, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium. pmissotten@ulg.ac.be
P
P
Missotten
G
G
Squelard
M
M
Ylieff
D
D
Di Notte
L
L
Paquay
J
J
De Lepeleire
F
F
Buntinx
O
O
Fontaine
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000523:psychology*; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007326:Institutionalization; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011788:Quality of Life; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012720:Severity of Illness Index