Exploring the influence of unmet needs and quality of life of community-dwelling older adults with dementia

Abstract

With the increasing aging of our society the number of patients with Dementia (PWD) has also rapidly increased Unmet needs occur when dementia care is faced with inadequate support Therefore the unmet need is an important issue in dementia care This study aims to explore the unmet needs of PWD living in the community to examine the association with unmet needs and PWD / caregivers (CG) characteristics Finally to analyze the impacts of PWD / CG factor and unmet needs on their quality of life This study is a cross-sectional survey that explores the influence of unmet needs and quality of life of PWD Basic demographic variables of PWD and their CG disease and functional variables care needs quality of life of PWD and care burden of CG were collected In total 158 persons of CG were interviewed The most frequently reported unmet needs were memory daily activities and benefits The significant predictors of the quality of life of PWD were gender age education IADL the severity of dementia number of unmet needs the proportion of psychological and social unmet needs of PWD and also gender care burden unmet psychological distress need of CG The CG of PWD is facing a heavy challenge on their bodies and minds Therefore this study further examined the relationship between care needs and quality of life through a comprehensive needs assessment of PWD Appropriate services can be provided to decrease the unmet needs of PWD reduce the burden of caregivers and would be helpful to enhance the quality of life of PWD

Date of Award	2021
Original language	English
Supervisor	Li-Fan Liu (Supervisor)