Table 1.
Demographics, mood, behaviour, carer coping/burden, maintenance of care at home, use of psychotropic medication and intervention contacts.
| Experimental Group (n = 25) | Control Group (n = 23) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Patient Age—years—mean (sd) | 77.6 (4.54) | 75.9 (5.00) | |||||
| Carer's Age—years—mean (sd) | 72.6 (9.05) | 67.4 (14.58) | |||||
| Diagnosis AD—Alzheimer's Disease n (%) | 13 (52) | 13 (57) | |||||
| VAD—Vascular Dementia n (%) | 12 (48) | 10 (43) | |||||
| MEASURES mean— (sd) | Months | Months | P value | ||||
| 0 n = 25 | 6 n = 24 | 12 n = 23 | 0 n = 23 | 6 n = 19 | 12 n = 15 | Estimate (95% CI) | |
| Cognition: MMSEa | 23.08 (4.34) | 22.42 (5.51) | 22.38 (4.43) | 21.7 (3.53) | 21.75 (5.66) | 20.8 (5.39) | 0.059 |
| Mood: Depression Cornell Scaleb | 2.84 (2.69) | 3.04 (2.93) | 2.38 (3.49) | 5.3 (4.09) | 6.65 (5.00) | 7.23 (5.33) | 0.008;3.15 (.883,5.41) |
| Mood: Anxiety: HAD-A Scalec | 5.24 (3.96) | 4.25 (3.27) | 4.91 (3.52) | 6.26 (3.48) | 6.42 (3.91) | 6.13 (2.72) | N.S. |
| Reported Memory and Behaviour Problemsd | 18.05 (8.97) | 17.79 (9.55) | 10.81 (7.91) | 22.17 (13.14) | 27.15 (16.11) | 20.0 (13.11) | 0.005;7.31 (1.96,12.7) |
| Reported Non-Cognitive Symptomse | 0.71 (0.69) | 1.13 (1.74) | 0.65 (0.99) | 1.07 (1.02) | 0.75 (1.02) | 1.43 (1.02) | 0.025† |
| Carer Management of Memory and Behaviour Problemsd | 14.56 (13.27) | 10.08 (7.52) | 6.81 (6.69) | 20.35 (16.54) | 19.1 (16.31) | 13.54 (7.59) | 0.012;5.21 (1.01,9.41) |
| Carer Management of Moodd | 6.0 (8.61) | 3.46 (4.85) | 1.90 (2.59) | 6.52 (7.29) | 7.1 (7.62) | 5.31 (4.87) | 0.010;3.83 (.953,6.70) |
| Carer Day-to-day Concernsf | 13.60 (9.24) | 13.67 (11.96) | 9.95 (9.9) | 19.96 (13.58) | 18.75 (16.07) | 18.77 (13.61) | 0.032 |
| Carer Competenceg | 28.59 (6.74) | 28.68 (4.68) | 30.9 (4.23) | 26.89 (5.68) | 26.26 (5.28) | 27.0 (5.99) | 0.035;−3.21 (−6.19,.239) |
| Carer Anxiety: HAD-A Scalec | 3.50 (3.69) | 4.57 (4.02) | 4.38 (4.22) | 6.18 (3.54) | 6.14 (4.45) | 5.13 (5.21) | N.S. |
| Carer Depression: HAD: HAD-D Scalec | 2.63 (2.37) | 2.78 (2.78) | 2.71 (3.12) | 3.18 (2.28) | 4.38 (3.54) | 4.00 (3.34) | N.S. |
| Carer Psychological Health: GHQh | 2.42 (2.90) | 3.04 (4.03) | 2.77 (5.36) | 5.29 (6.02) | 4.19 (6.13) | 4.27 (7.11) | N.S. |
| OTHER MEASURES (n = total sample) | n = 25 | n = 25 | n = 25 | n = 23 | n = 23 | n = 23 | |
| Breakdown of care at home (number) (includes deaths and admissions to care) | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 0.022†† |
| Use of psychotropic medication Patient Number (%) any psychotropic | 9 (36%) | 8 (32%) | 8 (32%) | 8 (35%) | 10 (43%) | 11 (48%) | N.S. |
| Total psychotropic drugs used* | 11 | 10 | 10 | 8 | 13 | 14 | |
| Number of intervention contacts (sd) median | 0 | 5.28 (3.08) 5 |
2.60 (3.14) 2 |
0 | 3.39 (4.38) 2 |
3.10 (4.76) 1 |
0.06††† |
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Some patients were on more than 1 psychotropic drug at one time.
Scores on this measure were not normally distributed. Mann-Whitney test used on reported symptoms at 12 months minus reported symptoms at 6 months.
p value obtained from Pearson's chi squared test for an association between intervention group and break down of care occurring by 12 months.
p value obtained from a Mann-Whitney test for a difference between intervention groups in the total number of contacts in 12 months.
Analysis“Quality of life (QoL)” outcome measures (except Non-Cognitive Symptoms) at 6 and 12 months were analysed using a mixed-model ANOVA with random patient effects, adjusting for corresponding baseline measures, diagnosis and age of patient. For such measures for which significant group differences but not group × time interactions were found, P-values, group difference estimates and 95% confidence intervals for the underlying group difference (control—experimental) are presented. For other measures, the comparisons to which the P-values apply are in the main text. “Use of psychotropic medication”: percentages are percentages of those who started in the group. All available data was used so that numbers analysed varied from measure to measure. Modelling used R Version 1.3.1