Cognitive Domains and Health-Related Quality of Life in Alzheimers Disease

Objectives.

The nature of the association between the cognitive decline and quality of life (QoL) during the course of Alzheimer's disease (AD) has not been studied in detail. We designed this study to determine if the association between cognitive domains in AD and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) changed over 18 months.

Methods.

We recruited 80 community-dwelling older adults with mild to moderate AD and 61 healthy elderly controls as well as their next-of-kin. The primary outcome measure was the QoL-AD. Specific cognitive functions were assessed with a broad range of neuropsychological measures, which were later grouped into cognitive domains following factor analyses at the baseline and 18-month assessments. Other explanatory variables included demographics, psychopathology, burden of care, and use of medication.

Results.

Self-reported QoL-AD scores were not associated with any of the identified cognitive domains at either assessment. The cognitive domains of people with AD changed between baseline and the 18-month assessment, as did the association of these factors with carer-rated HRQoL. The HRQoL scores assigned by the next-of-kin declined alongside a general measure of cognitive function.

Discussion.

These results indicate that HRQoL is not consistently associated with specific cognitive domains in AD and that cognitive-enhancing focused therapies may fail to affect the HRQoL of people with AD.

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