Awareness in dementia: A review of assessment methods and measures

Abstract

A comprehensive range of literature on awareness in dementia published in peer-reviewed journals during the last 15 years was reviewed with the aim of extracting details of the methods and measurement instruments adopted for the purposes of assessing awareness. Assessment approaches fell into five categories: clinician rating methods, questionnaire-based methods, performance-based methods, phenomenological methods, and multidimensional or combined methods. Ranges of objects of awareness assessment were identified both within and across domains. Strengths and limitations of methods in each category were identified. Reasons for the inconclusive findings from research using the methods described here were considered, and suggestions for future directions were made.

Acknowledgements

This work was carried out as part of the AWARE (awareness in early-stage dementia: understanding, assessment and implications for early intervention) project and was supported by the European Commission, contract number QLK6-CT-2002-30491. The project was conceived and developed by members of the INTERDEM network, which is co-ordinated by Esme Moniz-Cook. Thanks are due to co-investigators Barbara Romero, Mike Wang, and Bob Woods, and to all those who participated in the AWARE project meetings.