New Delhi: one computer simulation model has shown that four dementia care interventions reduced nursing home admissions and improved quality of life compared with usual care, thus demonstrating their efficacy and economy, according to the researchers.
The researchers said that while Alzheimer’sDrugs hold great promise and tend to get a lot of public attention, many well-researched ways of caring for people with dementia do not involve drugs. These methods may also help them stay safer at home longer.
“Now that we can show that these effective interventions can also save money, it makes sense to find ways to make them available to more families,” said the study’s lead author. Eric JutkowitzAssociate Professor, Brown University School of Public Health, USA.
“These interventions can be used to help people with dementia starting today,” he said.
The model has been published in Alzheimer’s‘s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association.
Interventions studied included: Maximizing independence at home, which includes care planning, skill development, and management of care provided at home, New York University Caregiver, which provides caregivers six counseling sessions over four months plus support, Alzheimer’s disease and dementia carea needs assessment provided by a health care system for people with dementia and their carers and Adult Day Service Plus, which augments adult day care services with staff providing personal support to carers, disease education and skills development .
Empowering family carers with knowledge, skills and support tailored to their care challenges has been shown to improve quality of life for both the carer and the person living with dementia. Along with reduced nursing home admissions, they were associated with fewer adverse events, such as hospitalizations and mortality.
The scientists said that despite being well-studied, such interventions have not been widely implemented in clinical care settings due to infrastructure limitations, such as fewer mechanisms to reimburse providers and support these methods of care. .
In this study, the researchers simulated the probability of admission to a nursing home for four people with evidence-based Alzheimer’s and dementia. non-pharmacological interventions compared to usual care. Each intervention was evaluated for social costs, quality-adjusted life years, and cost-effectiveness.
Inputs for the simulation were based on data from the US government’s Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, clinical trials, and national surveys.
A future analysis will look at similar non-pharmacological interventions that reduce or maintain functional impairment and challenging behaviours. The researchers are also designing a trial that would test these interventions with patients in a healthcare setting.
