Psychology Department, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA.
Neuropsychol Rehabil. 2009 Aug;19(4):562-82. doi: 10.1080/09602010802405623.
Everyday action performance is impaired as a consequence of dementia. Omissions (i.e., not performing task steps) are a frequent source of error in everyday tasks among dementia patients. External cues or notes are often suggested to improve everyday functioning and might specifically address omission errors; however, the efficacy of such strategies has not been evaluated. Thus, the primary aim of this study was to assess the efficacy of goal cues (i.e., reminders of everyday task objectives) for improving dementia patients' everyday action performance. Forty-four participants with mild to moderate dementia were administered the Naturalistic Action Test (NAT), a performance-based test that includes three everyday tasks. After participants indicated that they had completed each task, they were presented with a cue card restating the task goals. Videotapes were used to code task performance as well as responses to the cues. Most participants checked their work and showed significant improvement in task accomplishment/omission errors, but not commission errors, after the cues. However, effect sizes for the differences were small, and the proportion of cases in the impaired range did not differ before versus after the cues. Therefore, although statistically significant, we concluded that the goal cues did not meaningfully or clinically improve everyday functioning.
由于痴呆症，日常行为表现受损。在痴呆症患者的日常任务中，遗漏（即未执行任务步骤）是错误的常见来源。经常建议使用外部提示或注释来改善日常功能，并且可能专门针对遗漏错误；但是，尚未评估此类策略的功效。因此，这项研究的主要目的是评估目标提示（即日常任务目标的提醒）对改善痴呆症患者日常行为表现的功效。44 名轻度至中度痴呆症患者接受了自然动作测试（NAT），这是一种基于绩效的测试，包括三项日常任务。在参与者表示已经完成每个任务后，向他们展示一张提示卡，重新陈述任务目标。使用录像带对任务表现以及对提示的反应进行编码。大多数参与者在提示后检查了自己的工作，并在任务完成/遗漏错误方面表现出明显的改善，但在委托错误方面没有改善。但是，差异的效应大小很小，并且在提示之前和之后，受损范围的病例比例没有差异。因此，尽管具有统计学意义，但我们得出的结论是，目标提示并没有在临床上或有意义地改善日常功能。
