This is a research study to test two different interventions to decrease apathy in assisted living residents with some memory issues. Apathy makes older adults not feel like doing much activity. This study is completely voluntary and will not affect the care you receive at your assisted living community.
The two possible interventions are 1) participation in a volunteering opportunity within the assisted living community OR 2) participation in a guided current events group within the assisted living community. These activities would be in addition to any other regular activities you participate in within the assisted living community. Both activities would take place three days per week for approximately 30 minutes. You would be randomly assigned (like a coin flip) to which intervention you would do. You do not get to choose. You would participate in the activity for a total of 6 months.
In addition to participating in the intervention (either volunteering or current events), you will be asked to answer some questions about your memory, level of activity, mood, confidence in your ability to do a volunteer job, and feelings of usefulness. You will answer these questions at baseline (before the activity begins, at 3 months after doing the intervention activity, and aging at 6 months after starting the interventions activity. You will also be asked to wear a MotionWatch for 5 days at each time point (baseline, 3months and 6 months). A motion watch measures your level of activity. It feels like wearing a regular watch. You will be in the study for 6 months total.
Risks to participating in this study are minimal and include privacy (other people may find out you are in the study), confidentiality of the data collected if someone other than study staff accesses your records, fatigue with answering the questionnaires, and some mild discomfort with wearing the MotionWatch. This is also a minor risk that you could fall or otherwise harm yourself getting to or participating in your intervention activity.
The benefit of participating in this study include possible enjoyment of participating in the intervention activity.
age 55 years or older;
English speaking;
live in the included AL community
have mild to moderate cognitive impairment based on a SLUMS score of 26 or below and the ability to follow a one-step command.
None
Parallel
Volunteering in Place Program
BehavioralImplementation of the VIP Program consists of 4 steps guided by the Social Ecological Model (SEM) with Interpersonal interventions guided by Social Cognitive Theory (SCT), and will be implemented over a 6-month period by research supported Volunteer Coordinators. The four steps of the VIP Program are: Step 1: Stakeholder Team, Staff and Family Education; Step 2: Assessment of AL Environment and Residents Abilities and Interests; Step 3: Ongoing Implementation of the Volunteer Plan; and Step 4: Reassessment of the Volunteer Activity. Participants will volunteer three time per week for approximately 30 minutes.
Recreational activity
BehavioralThe Recreational Activities group intervention will consist of similar staff education regarding the benefits of engaging residents in meaningful activities as described in Step 1 above, without other steps associated with the VIP Program. The Recreational Activities group will be exposed to a research team RA coordinator who will provide a current events activity (reviewing the daily newspaper) for the participants in the RA group three times per week for approximately 30 minutes as an attention control.
Apathy Evaluation Scale
The Apathy Evaluation Scale-Informant (AES-I) will be used to assess apathy. The AES-I has 18 items that assess cognitive, behavioral, and emotional aspects of apathy. The scale has good psychometric properties when used to assess apathy in adults with dementia. The total score ranges from 18 to 72, with higher scores indicating more apathy.
Motion Watch
Objective sedentary activity will be obtained using three full weekdays of data from the MotionWatch 8©, a lightweight waterproof wrist worn tri-axial accelerometer that reliably measures activity in 60 second epochs of time.98 The resident will wear the MotionWatch for five days and the first and last day of data will not be included so as to get three complete days of data. The MotionWatch 8© contains a miniature accelerometer to allow measurement and recording of physical movement of the wrist which provides a close correlation to whole body movement. Reliability, validity, and cut points for different levels of activity have been established for older adults. Specifically we will collect counts of activity and time spent in sedentary activity during weekdays where the volunteer activity or recreational activity took place as this is when we expect to see changes in sedentary activity.
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University of Maryland, Baltimore
Lead sponsor
National Institute on Aging (NIA)
Collaborator
