Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia
Corso di laurea in infermieristica - Sede di Modena
| Thesis Title | Retrospective study on the Occupational Therapy home delivery application over Alzheimer's patients and their caregivers: analysis of preliminary data |
|---|---|
| Name | Salata Chiara |
| Supervisor(s) | Amendolara Rocco |
| Academic Year | 2016/17 |
| Thesis type | Non research thesis |
Abstract
Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of Occupational Therapy over patients affected by Alzheimer, doing so by assessing the degree of satisfaction and performance of the assistants (COPM) and the caregiver's sense of competence (SQC).
Methodology: This paper develop a retrospective research study concerning 27 Alzheimer patients, either in the initial phase of the illness or in its intermediate stage, together with their caregivers. Different evaluation scales have been administered both before and after the occupational therapy. The age of the patients was on average 80,59 yo, while the one of the caregiver was 57,78 yo. The intervention consists of 10 therapy session for the duration of five weeks.
Results: The data analysis revealed that caregivers are mainly females (67%) or patient’s children (59%). While, considering the evaluation scales, the study of the data showed relevant improvement for the SCQ scale related to caregivers (77,19 +/- 13,27 pre) (82,56 +/- 12,57 post) t=-3,102 p=0.005. A second important result came from COPM scale, administered to the patients, where the performance was (4,56 +/- 1,44 pre) (6,68 +/- 1.59 post) t=-6.597 p=0.000, and the satisfaction was (5,08 +/- 1,84 pre) (7,04 +/- 1.71 post) t=-6.180 p=0.000. The other scales involved in the analysis did not revealed statistically significant improvements (MMSE, NPI, DAD, GDS, QoL-AD and SF-12 for what concern the patient). At the same time from the caregiver side no meaningful improvements were revealed in the QoL-AD, SF-12, GHQ, CES-D and in the ZARIT evaluation scales.
Conclusion: The results of this study point out the Occupational Therapy as the therapy to follow in the situation here depicted. Moreover, their meaningfulness call for the possibility of the therapy on a national level. Nevertheless, it is required to deepen the analysis evaluating the effectiveness on next follow-ups.