2008 Grants - Bourgeois

Settings Determining Quality of Life in Dementia with Visual and Written Stimuli

Michelle Bourgeois, Ph.D.
Ohio State University
Columbus, Ohio

2008 Investigator-Initiated Research Grant

It is difficult to accurately assess the quality of life of people with dementia because of their cognitive and communication difficulties when being tested. Although several quality of life assessment tools exist, their reliability is limited.

Michelle Bourgeois, Ph.D., and colleagues will test two techniques, one verbal and the other visual, that are specifically designed to help people with dementia answer quality of life questions. They will then compare their findings to those from people who are questioned without the augmented verbal and visual techniques.

The researchers believe that people who are given the experimental techniques will provide fuller, clearer answers about their quality of life. They also believe that the participants' nursing aides will agree more often with the participants' answers about their quality of life when the experimental techniques are used. The goal of the study is to create better, more reliable ways of determining the quality of life of people with moderate to severe dementia.