Assessing the Impact of DAy Programs on Individuals Living with Dementia and Their Family/friend Caregivers

Summary

This study seeks to understand the effects of adult day programs on older adults, especially those with dementia, and their caregivers. A prospective cohort study will be conducted in the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, and Ontario. Participants will be (1) older adults with dementia who attend a day program, and their caregivers, and (2) older adults with dementia in the community who do not attend a day program, and their caregivers. The objectives are to (1) evaluate the effects of day programs on attendee and caregiver outcomes, and (2) compare day program use patterns, attendee and caregiver social identities, day program characteristics, and day program outcomes between the 4 provinces, and (3) to explore what attendee and caregiver social identities and day program characteristics are associated with study outcomes, and with day program attendance/non-attendance.

Conditions

• Adult Day Programs
• Continuing Care
• Old Age; Dementia
• Family/Friend Caregivers

Interventions

OTHER

Adult day program use

Day program use patterns will be determined, using Latent Class Analysis. Three continuous variables will be categorized as low, low-moderate, high-moderate, high, using sample distribution quartiles: (1) Time between first RAI-HC assessment and first attendance of a day program, (2) average number of hours of day program attendance (i.e., total number of hours spent in a day program divided by the number of times attended), and (3) total number of days a person attended a day program.

OTHER

Other community care (non-attendees)

Any publicly funded continuing care services in the community, other than adult day programming (e.g., home care, in-home respite). Community care participants will be propensity score matched with day program participants, using RAI-HC variables on day program eligibility (to ensure similarity of non-attendees to day program attendees). Matching variables will include: physical functioning, cognition, behavioural symptoms, bladder/bowel continence, availability of a caregiver, and caregiver distress. The investigators will also include variables on health and social characteristics (e.g., age, sex, type/duration of publicly funded community care received before the matching index date, deprivation indices).

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Carswell Family Foundation

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Alzheimer Society of York Region

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• York University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Matthias Hoben, Dr rer medic · York University

Eligibility

Min Age

65 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2024-11-01

Primary Completion

2026-04-30

Completion

2027-06-30

Countries

• Canada

Study Locations