Abstract

SILVANO, Ana; ANTUNES, Ana; LEBRE, Paula  and  SANTOS, Sofia. The quality of life in elderly people with dementia: the interrater reliability. Psic., Saúde & Doenças [online]. 2020, vol.21, n.1, pp.82-89. ISSN 1645-0086.  https://doi.org/10.15309/20psd210113.

The Quality of Life (QoL) as an organizing framework of health interventions still lacks of evidences within vulnerable subgroups (e.g.: dementia). Although the exclusive use of caregivers perception, a multi-respondent strategy requires the active participation of the person in his/her care plan. Our goal was to analyze the interrater reliability in the assessment of the QOL of elderly persons. Method: The Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) and DEMQOL were applied to 27 participants with and without dementia, between 73 to 101 years (84.52±6.54), 19 females, and their formal (health professionals) and informal (family member) caregivers. Results: Cronbach’s alpha indicates internal consistency (a>.70). The correlational analysis (Spearman rho) presented weak (feelings) to moderate (memory) correlations between groups (-.003>r<.67) and instruments (.02>r<.67). Formal caregivers report higher average scores, and significant different with the others respondents. The QOL self-reported and informal caregivers’ perceptions are similar. The QoL scores of self-report shows a low correlation with formal caregivers (r<.30) but moderate with informal caregivers (.42). Discussion: Results points out the pertinence of including the self-report in all intervention stages for persons-centered plans, where all respondents’ perceptions should be use as complementary. Recommendations for practices and investigations will be presented.

Keywords : Quality of Life; Dementia; Interrater reliability; Self-Report; Formal Caregiver; Informal Caregivers.

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