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Palliative care for dementia patients
France Hirot. Geriatrie et psychologie neuropsychiatrie du vieillissement, 2016-12-01
Topic: Health services, long-term care and technology
Dementia is a life-limiting disease without curative treatments but the data suggest that advanced dementia is not viewed as a terminal diagnosis by physicians. Although symptoms of dementia and cancer patients are similar, palliative care is less frequently proposed for dementia patients. However, professionals and family members of demented patients strongly favor comfort care for end-stage dementia. To improve the patients' relief near the end of life, advance care planning with patients and their proxies should be encouraged. It should start as soon as possible so that the patient can still be actively involved and his preferences, values, needs and beliefs elicited. Written advance directives or enrollment in hospice care are associated with quality of dying. Yet caregivers are sometimes concerned about applying palliative care too early or that advance plans would be invalidated if relatives or patients changed their mind. Therefore, general practitioners and palliative care specialists need to better collaborate to provide greater information and improve comfort and quality of life of dementia patients.
Key findings
- Dementia is a life-limiting disease without curative treatments but the data suggest that advanced dementia is not viewed as a terminal diagnosis by physicians.
- Written advance directives or enrollment in hospice care are associated with quality of dying.
Study details
- Evidence strengthLow
How this study scored 38/100
Published in a peer-reviewed journal. Scored zero for study design, sample size, effect reported, studied in people and randomised / blinded because the record does not state it. We have no data on journal's citation record, times cited, citations per year, impact for its field and year, cited by studies here, still being cited, senior author's track record, institution's track record, multi-centre collaboration and free to read, so those were left out: it earned 21 of the 56 points we could judge it on, which is 38 out of 100.
| Component | Points | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Journal tier | 7 / 10 | Tier 3 — peer-reviewed journal (Geriatrie et psychologie neuropsychiatrie du vieillissement) |
| Journal's citation record | — / 4 | No journal record from OpenAlex — left out of this score |
| Study design | 0 / 12 | No study design recorded — scores zero, not guessed (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Strength of evidence | 1 / 5 | Rated “low” in our summary |
| Peer-review validation | 10 / 10 | Peer-reviewed. Published as an article in a named peer-reviewed journal. |
| How recent | 1 / 5 | 2016 — within 20 year(s) of the newest study here |
| Sample size | 0 / 4 | Participant count not stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Effect reported | 0 / 3 | No effect size reported — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Studied in people | 0 / 3 | Not stated whether this was studied in people — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Randomised / blinded | 0 / 2 | No randomisation or blinding stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Times cited | — / 7 | No citation count (not found in OpenAlex) — left out of this score |
| Citations per year | — / 5 | No citation count or no year — left out of this score |
| Impact for its field and year | — / 6 | No field-weighted citation impact (OpenAlex has none yet) — left out of this score |
| Cited by studies here | — / 6 | Not yet checked against this library's citation graph — left out of this score |
| Still being cited | — / 4 | No yearly citation counts — left out of this score |
| Senior author's track record | — / 4 | Senior author's record not available — left out of this score |
| Institution's track record | — / 3 | No institution listed in OpenAlex — left out of this score |
| Multi-centre collaboration | — / 3 | Institutions not listed — left out of this score |
| Indexed in PubMed | 2 / 2 | Indexed in PubMed (PMID 27976624) |
| Free to read | — / 2 | Access not recorded — left out of this score |
| Points | 21 / 56 | Scored on 10 of 20 parts. We have no data for the rest, so they are left out: 21 of the 56 points we could judge it on is 38 out of 100. |
| Total | 38 / 100 | — |
What each of these 20 components measures, and what this score is not →
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Cite this study APA, Vancouver, BibTeX · download .bib or .ris
Built from the record alzhub holds for this paper, not looked up. Volume, issue and page numbers are not held in the record. Check the citation against the original before you use it.
APA 7th
Hirot, F. (2016). Palliative care for dementia patients. Geriatrie et psychologie neuropsychiatrie du vieillissement. https://doi.org/10.1684/pnv.2016.0641
Vancouver
Hirot F. Palliative care for dementia patients. Geriatrie et psychologie neuropsychiatrie du vieillissement. 2016. doi:10.1684/pnv.2016.0641. PMID: 27976624.
BibTeX
@article{hirot2016-27976624,
author = {Hirot, France},
title = {{Palliative care for dementia patients}},
journal = {Geriatrie et psychologie neuropsychiatrie du vieillissement},
year = {2016},
doi = {10.1684/pnv.2016.0641},
pmid = {27976624},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1684/pnv.2016.0641}
}