Table 3.
Stability of Forced-Choice Item Response During a 9-Month Period, for Participants With and Without Dementia
| % of Longitudinal Sample Included in This Analysis |
Cohen’s κ |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Item | Control | Dementia | Control | Dementia |
| 1. Enjoying simple pleasures | 71.0 | 71.4 | .318 | .364 |
| 2. Ability to think clearly | 75.8 | 83.7 | .510 | .168 |
| 3. Quality versus length of life | 79.0 | 89.8 | .728 | −.048a |
| 4. Pain medicine | 58.1 | 64.6 | .739 | .716 |
| 5. Accepting help for personal needs | 80.6 | 85.7 | .730 | .195 |
| 6. Religious beliefs | 77.4 | 95.9 | .520 | .619 |
| 7. Where to receive care | 69.4 | 85.7 | .583 | .665 |
| 8. Feelings about dying | 77.4 | 81.6 | .929 | .895 |
| 9. From whom to receive personal care | 71.0 | 75.5 | .758 | .466 |
| 10. Who makes decisions | 91.9 | 93.9 | .497 | .311 |
| 11. Being a burden | 88.7 | 89.8 | .650 | .616 |
| 12. Who decisions are for | 74.2 | 71.4 | .548 | .190 |
| 13a. Feeding tube, if aware | 64.5 | 72.1 | .524 | .472 |
| 13b. Feeding tube, if terminally ill | 87.1 | 95.3 | .234 | .221 |
Note: This analysis includes only participants who chose one of the two forced choices at both times of measurement (excluding those who chose some of both or I don’t know). The percentage column indicates the percentage of the entire longitudinal sample (63 control and 49 dementia participants) included in this analysis.
a
This number is so low because there were no people with dementia who said, at both times of measurement, that length of life was more important.