BioPsychoSocial Assessment Tools for the Elderly - Assessment Summary Sheet

Test: Quality of Life in Older Adults with Cognitive Impairment (QOL-AD)

Year: 1999

Domain: Psychological

Assessment Tool Category: Quality of Life

Variations/Translations: N/A

Setting: Clinical Setting

Method of Delivery: Administered by caregiver or health care provider.

Description: The Quality of Life in Older Adults with Cognitive Impairment (QOL-AD) questionnaire is based on literature reviews of quality of life in older people. The questionnaire has 13-items covering physical health, energy, mood, living situations, memory, family, marriage, friends, chores, fun, money, self and life as a whole. The QOL-AD uses straightforward language for simplicity.

Scoring/Interpretation: The assessment is scored on a 4-point Likert score ranging from 1 (poor) to 4 (excellent) with total scores ranging from 13 to 52. The higher the score, the better quality of life the participant has. For patients with advanced cognitive impairments, a caregiver will also take the assessment, but the patients score will be weighted twice as heavily since these responses are most important.

Time to Administer: Patients completed the questionnaire in 10 minutes, and caregivers usually complete the questionnaire in less than 10 minutes.

Availability: Appendix of Logsdon et al. (2002) article.

Software: N/A

Website: N/A

Quantitative/Qualitative: Quantitative

Validity (Quantitative): The validity of patient and caregiver reports across cognitive levels was supported by a correlation with Dementia Quality of Life scale (0.69) and with the Euroqol-5D scale (0.54), indicating good criterion concurrent validity. In summary, the QOL-AD is a valid assessment (Logsdon et al., 2002).

Reliability (Quantitative): QOL-AD has good internal reliability (α = 0.88-0.89) and test-retest reliability correlations for patients and caregivers are 0.76 and 0.92, respectively (Logsdon et al., 1999).

References:

Logsdon, R.G., Gibbons, L.E., McCurry, S.M., & Teri, L. (1999). Quality of life in Alzheimer’s disease: Patient and caregiver reports. Journal of Mental Health Aging 5, 21–32.

Logsdon, R.G., Gibbons, L.E., McCurry, S.M., & Teri, L. (2002). Assessing quality of life in older adults with cognitive impairment. Psychomatic Medicine, 64, 510-519.

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