Abstract
PersonCareinCogI: Personalized Care in Cognitive Impairment, from diagnosis to intervention. The increase in life expectancy and the impact of ageing-related pathologies on older adults’ quality of life have led to a growing interest in physiological to pathological ageing trajectories. Cognitive decline is one of the main dimensions impacting the cost of ageing in healthcare systems, especially when it follows the trajectory toward dementia. Consequently, identifying different profiles of cognitive decline is relevant for developing, evaluating, implementing, and personalizing care and effective treatments aimed toimprove life expectancies and older adults’ quality of life. This is also in line with the most recent evidence on the effectiveness of psychosocial interventions in different types and stages of cognitive decline. However, despite this evidence, very little informationis available on their appropriateness, thus leading to a lack of interventions tailored to the individual characteristics, preferences and unique circumstances. To provide personalized and effective care, it is necessary to identify the typology of most responsive people to an intervention based on specific characteristics (i.e., socio-demographic, clinical-anamnestic, cognitive, affective). In line with the issues mentioned above, this project aims to i) analyze the effectiveness and sensitivity of a diagnostic protocol characterized by multicomponent analysis- and assess the trajectory and the individual expression of the cognitive decline (from healthy ageing to dementia). To this aim, cognitive and behavioral patterns, lifestyles, life experiences, medical and psychological conditions will be assessed via a multi-component protocol, adopting standardized instruments and robust statistical procedures; ii) provide a reasoned model to deliver personalized and effective care. To this aim, a multi-method approach integrating quantitative and qualitative methods will be capitalized. The specific goal of Bologna uniti s The second goal of this study will be to provide a rational model for assessing and evaluating psychosocial interventions (such as CST), which can be used to deliver personalized and effective care. The approach to this novel and underexplored research builds on previous research and expertise within our consortium in clinical research through the involvement in several national and international projects, such as the SIDECAR project (https://sidecarproject.eu). We will apply a multi-method approach that integrates quantitative and qualitative methods to rigorously carry out the multicentre study. Based on the use of the protocol (above mentioned) and qualitative studies, we will identify a core set of reliable measures which will be tested pre-post CST. Quantitative data, along with semistructured interviews, will allow us to understand the functional components of CST and unravel the people who are most responsive to the intervention. The derived model concerning CST (i.e., the psychosocial intervention with the best supporting evidence) can also be applied for evaluating the degree of appropriateness of other psychosocial interventions, thus delivering more personalized (i.e. attuned to patients’ characteristics) and effective interventions. Overall, this study will assess the multicomponent aspects involved in older adults’ cognitive decline and the appropriateness of an evidence-based intervention for mild-moderate dementia. Prospectively, the protocol derived from this research project can be adopted in clinical settings by providing flexible a instrument to finely evaluate progression towards dementia and clarify the role of individual characteristics on treatment outcomes. The results will consist of a core set of reliable measures which can inform about the appropriateness of psychosocial interventions, thus helping professionals to refer p
Project details
Unibo Team Leader: Rabih Chattat
Unibo involved Department/s:
Dipartimento di Psicologia "Renzo Canestrari"
Coordinator:
"Sapienza" Universita' Di Roma(Italy)
Total Unibo Contribution: Euro (EUR) 82.219,00
Project Duration in months: 24
Start Date:
05/10/2023
End Date:
28/02/2026
