Health and Quality of Life Outcomes BioMed Central Review Open Access Quality of Life measures for dementia Rebecca E Ready*1 and Brian R Ott2 Address: 1Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Brown Medical School. Providence, RI, USA and 2Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Brown Medical School Providence, RI, USA Email: Rebecca E Ready* - Rebecca_Ready@; Brian R Ott - Brian_Ott@ * Corresponding author Published: 23 April 2003 Health and Quality of Life Outcomes 2003, 1:11 This article is available from: Received: 20 March 2003 Accepted: 23 April 2003 © 2003 Ready and Ott; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article: verbatim copying and redistribution of this. | BioMed Central Health and Quality of Life Outcomes Review Quality of Life measures for dementia Rebecca E Ready 1 and Brian R Ott2 Open Access Address Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior Brown Medical School. Providence RI USA and 2Department of Clinical Neurosciences Brown Medical School Providence RI USA Email Rebecca E Ready - Rebecca_Ready@ Brian R Ott - Brian_Ott@ Corresponding author Published 23 April 2003 Received 20 March 2003 Accepted 23 April 2003 Health and Quality of Life Outcomes 2003 1 11 This article is available from http content 1 1 1 1 2003 Ready and Ott licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article verbatim copying and redistribution of this article are permitted in all media for any purpose provided this notice is preserved along with the article s original URL. Abstract Over the past 10 years several instruments developed specifically for the assessment of Quality of Life QOL in dementia have been introduced. The goal of the current review is to present compare and critique existing QOL measures for dementia populations to assist investigators and clinicians in selecting the optimal inventory for their specific needs. Nine measures are reviewed with a focus on conceptualizations of QOL psychometric data targeted patient population and administration and scoring procedures. Critical discussion and comparison of the instruments is presented after the scales are described individually. Differences in definitions of QOL assessment procedures and methods that were used to establish the validity of instruments are highlighted. An important direction for future research on QOL scales for dementia is to establish their responsiveness to change over time. It will also be important to identify factors that affect reports of QOL determine the how perceived QOL affects decisions regarding the care of dementia patients and evaluate interventions to increase patient QOL. Introduction Quality of Life .
