Evaluation of the Savvy Caregiver Program for LGBTQIA Adults Living With Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias

Abstract Approximately 350,000 LGBTQIA+ older adults in the U.S. currently have Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD), with projections nearing 1 million by 2030. LGBTQIA+ older adults face challenges in receiving adequate and inclusive care and caregiving support due to the inability to rely on traditional family networks, greater disability, and discrimination when seeking aging services. Working with the Los Angeles LGBT Center Aging in Community Initiative, we evaluated the: 1) Adaptation of the Savvy caregiver training program for care providers of LGBTQIA+ persons living with ADRD; and 2) Feasibility and acceptability of the program. Care providers were very satisfied with the program, strategies, information, and activities of the tailored Savvy program. For psychosocial outcomes, there were trends in greater care planning, increases in asking friends/family for support, and decreased loneliness. Additional research is needed on culturally-relevant aging services and behavioral interventions for care providers of LGBTQIA+ persons living with ADRD.

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Daily social interactions related to daily performance on mobile cognitive tests among older adults

PLoS ONE ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0256583 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 16 (8) ◽

pp. e0256583

Author(s):

Ruixue Zhaoyang ◽

Stacey B. Scott ◽

Lynn M. Martire ◽

Martin J. Sliwinski

Keyword(s):

Alzheimer’S Disease ◽

Older Adults ◽

Alzheimer's Disease ◽

Cognitive Function ◽

Cognitive Decline ◽

Social Interactions ◽

Cognitive Performance ◽

Behavioral Interventions ◽

Daily Life ◽

Cognitive Tests

The lack of social contact or good social relationships has been linked with cognitive decline and higher risk for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. One important but unexamined question is how daily social interactions relate to older adults’ cognitive function in daily life. The present study examined how changes in daily social interactions related to fluctuations in older adults’ performance on mobile cognitive tests from day to day. Using an ecological momentary assessments approach, 312 older adults (aged 70 to 90 years) completed surveys on social interactions and mobile cognitive tests five times a day for 16 consecutive days using smartphones. Multilevel modeling was used for analyses. Results demonstrated that having more daily social interactions, especially more pleasant social interactions, related to better cognitive performance the same day and over the subsequent two days. Cognitive performance, however, did not predict subsequent changes in social interactions across days. At the between-person level, older adults who had more (vs. less) frequent interactions with close partners on average, especially with their friends, had better cognitive performance. Finally, the average levels of social interactions also moderated the within-person associations between daily social interactions and the same-day cognitive performance. In sum, results from this study highlight the importance of having pleasant social interactions and frequent interactions with friends for older adults’ cognitive function in daily life, and have important implications for future behavioral interventions targeting certain features of daily social interactions to reduce risk of cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.

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Cognitive control constrains memory attributions

Behavioral and Brain Sciences ◽

10.1017/s0140525x19001869 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 42 ◽

Author(s):

Colleen M. Kelley ◽

Larry L. Jacoby

Keyword(s):

Alzheimer’S Disease ◽

Older Adults ◽

Alzheimer's Disease ◽

Traumatic Brain Injury ◽

Brain Injury ◽

Cognitive Control

Abstract Cognitive control constrains retrieval processing and so restricts what comes to mind as input to the attribution system. We review evidence that older adults, patients with Alzheimer's disease, and people with traumatic brain injury exert less cognitive control during retrieval, and so are susceptible to memory misattributions in the form of dramatic levels of false remembering.

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Partner-Specific Communication Deficits in Individuals With Alzheimer's Disease

American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology ◽

10.1044/2020_ajslp-19-00094 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 1-15

Author(s):

Eun Jin Paek ◽

Si On Yoon

Keyword(s):

Alzheimer’S Disease ◽

Older Adults ◽

Alzheimer's Disease ◽

Referential Communication ◽

Sorting Task ◽

Audience Design ◽

Healthy Older Adults ◽

Communication Task ◽

Design Skills ◽

Referential Expressions

Purpose Speakers adjust referential expressions to the listeners' knowledge while communicating, a phenomenon called “audience design.” While individuals with Alzheimer's disease (AD) show difficulties in discourse production, it is unclear whether they exhibit preserved partner-specific audience design. The current study examined if individuals with AD demonstrate partner-specific audience design skills. Method Ten adults with mild-to-moderate AD and 12 healthy older adults performed a referential communication task with two experimenters (E1 and E2). At first, E1 and participants completed an image-sorting task, allowing them to establish shared labels. Then, during testing, both experimenters were present in the room, and participants described images to either E1 or E2 (randomly alternating). Analyses focused on the number of words participants used to describe each image and whether they reused shared labels. Results During testing, participants in both groups produced shorter descriptions when describing familiar images versus new images, demonstrating their ability to learn novel knowledge. When they described familiar images, healthy older adults modified their expressions depending on the current partner's knowledge, producing shorter expressions and more established labels for the knowledgeable partner (E1) versus the naïve partner (E2), but individuals with AD were less likely to do so. Conclusions The current study revealed that both individuals with AD and the control participants were able to acquire novel knowledge, but individuals with AD tended not to flexibly adjust expressions depending on the partner's knowledge state. Conversational inefficiency and difficulties observed in AD may, in part, stem from disrupted audience design skills.

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Auditory Dysfunction in Alzheimer's Disease

Perspectives on Gerontology ◽

10.1044/gero15.1.4 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 15 (1) ◽

pp. 4-11 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Sridhar Krishnamurti

Keyword(s):

Alzheimer’S Disease ◽

Older Adults ◽

Alzheimer's Disease ◽

Health Care ◽

Care Setting ◽

Neurodegenerative Disorder ◽

Disease Process ◽

Clinical Protocols ◽

Speech Language Pathologist ◽

Auditory Dysfunction

Alzheimer's disease is neurodegenerative disorder which affects a growing number of older adults every year. With an understanding of auditory dysfunction in Alzheimer's disease, the speech-language pathologist working in the health care setting can provide better service to these individuals. The pathophysiology of the disease process in Alzheimer's disease increases the likelihood of specific types of auditory deficits as opposed to others. This article will discuss the auditory deficits in Alzheimer's disease, their implications, and the value of clinical protocols for individuals with this disease.

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