P.008 Alzheimer’s disease biomarker testing from the perspective of patients and caregivers

Abstract

Background: To enrich our understanding of the impact of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) CSF biomarker testing on patients and caregivers, we examined these perspectives within the IMPACT-AD BC study. Methods: IMPACT-AD BC (NCT05002699, impactAD.org) is an observational, longitudinal study examining the impact of AD CSF biomarker testing (i.e., amyloid-beta and tau proteoforms) on personal and medical utility, and health economics. Patients underwent AD biomarker testing as part of medical care (n=142), and for the personal utility arm, a subset of patients (n=34), and their ‘care partner’ (n=31), were interviewed post-biomarker disclosure to understand their decision-making to undergo testing and the impact of learning the test results. Results: The primary consideration in patients’ decision to undergo testing was the desire for diagnostic clarity (63%). After biomarker result disclosure, patients’ positive feelings stemmed largely from having greater diagnostic certainty (55%) and the ability to plan for the future (23%), including making financial changes (58%) and care plans (21%). Care partners conveyed that biomarker testing provided needed information to help plan for the future and spurred them to connect with community resources. Conclusions: Patients and care partners value the diagnostic clarity from AD biomarker testing and use the information to make informed future plans.