Effects and Costs of a Day Care Centre Program Designed for People with Dementia-A 24 Month Controlled Study

Abstract

Background: Attending day care centres with programs specifically designed for patients with dementia is believed to postpone admittance to nursing home as well as increase quality of life and well-being for both patients and their family carers. Therefore, the Norwegian Ministry of Health and Care Services is presently offering funding to all municipalities that wish to establish day care centre programs for this group of patients. There is only limited knowledge on the effectiveness of day care centre programs designed for patients with dementia. Our research group aims to investigate to what degree attendance in day care centres with programs designed for people with dementia is effective to postpone admittance to nursing home care, to enhance quality of life for the patients and to relieve burden of care for the family carers. Methods/Design: The study is a quasi-experimental trial with a comparison group and a qualitative inquiry. Four hundred patients with dementia and their family caregivers will be included in the trial. Assessments will be made at baseline, after one and two years. Data collection will be made at three levels; at patient level with measures of cognition, depression, coping, quality of life, functioning in activities of daily living, neuropsychiatric symptoms and time of death; at family carer level with measures of depression, coping and burden; and at societal level with measures of nursing home admittance, hospital stays and use of other health and social care resources. For the qualitative analysis, 20 dyads of patients receiving a day care program and their family carers will be asked to participate. The main focus will be to explore how the day care centre programs affect both the patients and the family carers’ daily life. Five of these dyads will be followed closely throughout two years. Trial registration: Clinical Trial number NCT01943071.