Abstract
IntroductionTherapeutic education is expanding in the management of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients. Several studies have revealed a positive impact of therapeutic educational programmes on the caregiver’s burden and/or quality of life. However, to date, no study has evaluated its impact on the quality of life of the AD patient.MethodsThe THERAD study (THerapeutic Education in Alzheimer’s Disease) is a 12-month randomised controlled trial that started in January 2013. This paper describes the study protocol. THERAD plans to enroll 170 dyads (AD patient and caregiver) on the basis of the following criteria: patient at a mild to moderately severe stage of AD, living at home, receiving support from a family caregiver. The main outcome is the patient’s quality of life assessed by the Logsdon QoL-AD scale at 2 months, reported by the caregiver. The study is being led by geriatricians trained in therapeutic education at Toulouse University Hospital in France. To date, 107 caregiver/patient dyads have been recruited.ConclusionThis is the first trial designed to assess the specific impact of a therapeutic educational programme on the AD patient’s quality of life. The final results will be available in 2015.Trial registration[ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01796314] Registered 19 February 2013
Highlights
Therapeutic education is expanding in the management of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients
At the 12-month visit, there is less than 5% attrition
quality of life (QoL) assessment provides a format to express whether an intervention has made an important difference to the patient’s life, but its measurement is a challenge in AD [20,21,28,47]
Summary
Therapeutic education is expanding in the management of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients. Several studies have revealed a positive impact of therapeutic educational programmes on the caregiver’s burden and/or quality of life. The caregiver, who bears a substantial burden that can have adverse effects on his/her physical and mental health, appears to be the real beneficiary of those approaches [5,6]. For this reason, most of the studies in the field of therapeutic education in AD have focused on the impact of therapeutic educational programmes on the caregiver’s outcomes [2,4,5,6,7,8]. Several works have demonstrated positive results, such as an improvement
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
