Experiences of Active Everyday Life Among Persons with Prodromal Alzheimer’s Disease: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

Introduction

Identifying strategies to prevent or delay cognitive decline among the rising numbers of elderly is acknowledged as a global public health priority. Research suggests that an active lifestyle in terms of participation in activities has the potential to reduce the risk of later-life cognitive decline. The concept of “active everyday life”, however, needs to be further explored.

Aim

The study aimed to explore and describe the active everyday lives of persons with prodromal Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in terms of quality of participation in activities and perceived restrictions.

Methods

This qualitative study was part of a larger project, the MIND-AD_MINI trial. Nine in-depth interviews were conducted with seven participants (2 males, 5 females; mean age of 72.3) at baseline before the intervention. The data were collected from January to October 2018 and analyzed using the grounded theory approach.

Results

Four categories emerged from the analysis: (i) active body and mind; (ii) doing desired meaningful activities to feel engaged, contented, and satisfied; (iii) doing in the context of being connected to others; (iv) ability in making decisions and taking actions. From these categories, which presented the key elements of an active everyday life, a core category was identified: Living a complete life in flow.

Conclusion

The findings suggest key elements of participation quality that contribute to an active life. The identified elements are important to be considered in rehabilitation to provide opportunities and possibilities for participation to enable and improve the quality of participation among persons with cognitive impairments.

Keywords:

• Alzheimer’s disease
• everyday life
• activity
• participation
• prevention
• qualitative method

Acknowledgment

We would like to acknowledge the participants in this study for their willingness and active participation in sharing their experiences with us.

Author Contributions

All authors made a significant contribution to the work reported, whether that is in the conception, study design, execution, acquisition of data, analysis, and interpretation, or in all these areas: took part in drafting, revising, or critically reviewing the article; gave final approval of the version to be published; have agreed on the journal to which the article has been submitted; and agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Disclosure

Miia Kivipelto reports personal fees from Biogen, Nutricia, Nestlé, and Lundbeck; grants from Academy of Finland, Swedish Research Council, JPND, EU 7th framework, CIMED, JPND, IMI, Wallenberg Clinical grant, FORTE, KI-Janssen Strategic Collaboration, Imperial College ITMAT, Gates Ventures/ADDI, Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation and Part the Cloud, outside the submitted work; Advisory boards for Biogen, Combinostics, Swedish Care International, Roche Board of governors member and Scientific Advisory Board member Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation. The authors report no other conflicts of interest in this work.