Feasibility and Effect Sizes of the Revised Daily Engagement of Meaningful Activities Intervention for Individuals With Mild Cognitive Impairment and Their Caregivers

Contact Information

Keywords

Yvonne Yueh-Feng Lu,yuelu@iu.edu

N/A

Abstract

A nurse-led intervention, Daily Engagement of Meaningful Activities (DEMA), was evaluated for feasibility and effect sizes in a two-group randomized pilot study with 36 patient-caregiver dyads (17 DEMA and 19 attention control). Effect sizes were estimated on 10 outcomes: dyad functional ability awareness congruence; patients' meaningful activity performance and satisfaction, confidence, depressive symptoms, communication satisfaction, physical function, and life satisfaction; and caregivers' depressive symptoms and life changes. High feasibility of DEMA was supported by the following indicators: consent (97.7%), session completion (91.7%), and Time 3 measure completion (97.2%). Compared to the attention control group, the DEMA group had higher dyad congruence in functional ability awareness and life satisfaction 3 months post-intervention and improved physical function at 2 weeks post-intervention. Although DEMA showed high feasibility and benefits on some health-related outcomes, further testing of DEMA in a larger randomized controlled clinical trial is needed.

Citation

Lu, Y. Y., Bakas, T., Yang, Z., Weaver, M. T., Austrom, M. G., & Haase, J. E. (2016). Feasibility and Effect Sizes of the Revised Daily Engagement of Meaningful Activities Intervention for Individuals With Mild Cognitive Impairment and Their Caregivers. Journal of gerontological nursing, 42(3), 45–58. https://doi.org/10.3928/00989134-20160212-08

DOI

10.3928/00989134-20160212-08

EWB Constructs:

(1) goal pursuit; (2) life satisfaction; (3) positive affect; (4) quality of life; (5) sense of meaning

EWB Measures:

(1) the Life Satisfaction Index for the Third Age-Short Form (Barrett & Murk, 2006)

data availability:

data availability details:

N/A

brain imaging paradigm:

N/A

brain region/circuit:

Exclusion Criteria:

(1) Patients with significant neurological disease other than suspected incipient AD or with current major depression were excluded.
(2) Potential caregiver participants with diagnosed bipolar disorder or untreated schizophrenia were excluded

Inclusion Criteria

Patients: (1) age 60 or older and meeting established MCI classification criteria
Caregivers: (1) adults with primary responsibility for providing unpaid care to their partner
(2) including monitoring safety and providing social support, and a score >4 on the 6-item Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE;
Both: patients and caregivers had to be able to read and speak English and have access to a telephone.

Non-EWB Behavioral
Measures:

(1) Dementia Deficits Scale
(2) 15-item Bakas Caregiving Outcomes
(3) Alzheimer Disease Cooperative Study-Activities of Daily Living Scale
(4) the Communication and Affective Expression Subscales of Family Assessment Device
(5) the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure
(6) Nowotny Confidence Subscale
(7) Patient Health Questionnaire

First author:

Yvonne Yueh-Feng Lu,

species:

Human

sample size:

study design:

(5) RCT

longitudinal data?

Yes

younger controls?

interventions:

Daily Engagement of Meaningful Activities Intervention

study population:

(2) patients with (pre)clinical dementia
(1) cognitively healthy adults

sex (% female):

Patients: 42.5%
Caregivers: 70%

ethnicity (%white)

Patients: 87.5%
Caregivers: 82.5%

Age (mean, sd):

Patients: 73.85, 6.95
Caregivers: 67.87, 9.88

biological/Physiological Measures:

N/A