RTI Health Solutions, 200 Park Offices Drive, Research Triangle Park, NC, 27709-2194, USA,
Qual Life Res. 2014 Aug;23(6):1813-21. doi: 10.1007/s11136-013-0620-5. Epub 2014 Jan 22.
To estimate the relative importance that Alzheimer's disease (AD) caregivers in the United States and Germany place on preserving patients' ability to perform activities of daily living.
US and German residents providing care for a person with AD completed an online preference survey. Each respondent completed five best-worst scaling questions. Each question related to five of 10 activities from the Disability Assessment for Dementia scale. Preference weights, indicating the relative importance of preserving the ability to perform these 10 activities for 36 months, were estimated using maximum-difference scaling. A separate model was estimated for each country.
Four hundred and three US and 400 German caregivers completed the survey. In both countries, preserving a patients' ability to use the toilet without accidents was the most important activity and handling money was the least important activity. There were few differences between US and German caregivers in the relative importance across activities.
Caregivers generally placed greater importance on preserving basic activities of daily living than on preserving instrumental activities of daily living. Understanding differences in the relative importance of functional items in the DAD may contribute to a better understanding of the benefits of different AD treatment and support measures.
评估美国和德国的阿尔茨海默病（AD）护理人员对维持患者日常生活活动能力的相对重视程度。
为 AD 患者提供护理的美国和德国居民完成了在线偏好调查。每位受访者完成了五个最佳最差标度问题。每个问题都与来自失智症残疾评估量表的 10 项活动中的 5 项相关。使用最大差异标度法估计偏好权重，以表明在 36 个月内维持这些 10 项活动能力的相对重要性。为每个国家分别估计了一个模型。
共有 403 名美国和 400 名德国护理人员完成了调查。在这两个国家，护理人员认为患者保持无意外使用厕所的能力是最重要的活动，而处理金钱是最不重要的活动。在活动的相对重要性方面，美国和德国护理人员之间几乎没有差异。
护理人员普遍更重视维持基本的日常生活活动能力，而不是维持工具性日常生活活动能力。了解 DAD 中功能项目的相对重要性差异可能有助于更好地理解不同的 AD 治疗和支持措施的益处。
