Apathy in older people living with a major neurocognitive disorder in long-term care homes : a scoping review protocol
Other
Author(s)
Affiliation
Keywords
- Maladie Alzheimer
- Symptômes comportementaux et psychologiques de la démence
- Personne âgée
- Gériatrie
- Troubles cognitifs
- Démence
- Revue systématique
- Alzheimer's disease
- Behavioural and psychological symptoms
- Aged
- Geriatrics
- Cognition disorders
- Dementia
- Systematic review
- Causes
- Factors
- Consequences
- Interventions
Abstract(s)
Background: Apathy has major consequences for older people (e.g., deconditioning), their
family care partners and formal caregivers. Although systematic reviews have been conducted,
they have focused on the effectiveness of interventions to reduce this behaviour. Furthermore,
they have not been specific to long-term care homes, despite studies conducted in that
setting. However, older people in this setting have very different characteristics and more
severe cognitive impairment than those in the community. For this reason, knowledge about
existing interventions, causes, associated factors, and consequences of apathy is needed to
choose or develop personalized interventions. Thus, this scoping review aims to map the state
of knowledge about apathy in older people living in long-term care homes to develop
personalized interventions. The Senses Framework, which provides a humanistic and relational
perspective to examine apathy, will guide this review.
Methods: Levac, Colquhoun, and O'Brien (2010) scoping review methods will be used. Eleven
databases (e.g., CINAHL, MedLine, PsycINFO, Web of Science, Grey Literature Report) will be
searched for literature using a combination of keywords and descriptors. Other data sources
will be used to identify non-indexed literature or unpublished results (e.g., article references,
journal tables of content, contact with key authors). The literature will be selected if it concerns
older people, aged 65 or older, with a major neurocognitive disorder who exhibit apathy and
live in long-term care homes. Data will be extracted using standardized extraction grids. A
quality assessment of the literature will be done to consider this aspect in the data synthesis.
A content analysis will be used to synthesize the results, as well as tables and graphs.
Discussion: No scoping review has been found on apathy in older people living with a major
neurocognitive disorder in long-term care homes. The results of this review will help identify
the needs for further research and clinical and training development on this problem from a
humanistic and relational perspective. It will also guide the development of personalized
interventions.