Enhancing Dementia Care Quality: Insights and Perspectives<br>

1. Health care quality from the persons with dementia’s perspective:Development and testing of a questionnaire Ann Karin Helgesen and Vigdis Abrahamsen GrøndahlRNT, MSc, PhDAssociate Professors in Nursing Science Østfold University CollegeNorway

2. Statement of the problem • 47.5 million people have dementia worldwide • 7.7 million new cases every year • A growing patient group’s opportunity to express their views on the care they receive is limited

3. Statement of the problem • Persons with dementia can provide meaningful answers • The Quality from the Patient’s Perspective (QPP) questionnaire

4. The purpose • To adapt the Quality from the Patient’s Perspective Questionnaire (QPP) for use by persons with dementia • To describe perceptions of care quality among persons with dementia in special care units in nursing homes

5. Ethical considerations • Norwegian Social Science Data Services

6. Methodology & Theoretical orientation • A cross-sectional design • Special care units (SCU) in three nursing homes • 61 persons with dementia (54.5%) • Response rate of 96.8% • Interviews using an adapted version of QPP labeled Quality from the Patient’s Perspective (QPP-DC)

7. Analysis • Exploratory factor analysis • Cronbach’s alpha

8. Results • Ages ranged from 60 to 100 years (mean age 85.3 years) • Two-thirds were women • 54% had upper secondary school or higher education • 34% of the respondents were assessed using the CDR • The score of the MMSE ranged from 1 to 26 (mean value 12.98)

9. Results • The QPP questionnaire specifically for dementia care (QPP-DC) consists of 23 items representing seven factors with an eigenvalue ≥ 1.0 • The reliability coefficients were acceptable for most factors

10. Conclusions & Significance • QPP-DC provides a meaningful tool for care quality improvements in SCUs by detecting areas of importance concerning healthcare for persons with dementia. • Efforts must be made to provide a more person-centered approach in order to help and support the persons with dementia when feeling uneasy and lonely.

11. Thank You for Your attention E-mail: ann.k.helgesen@hiof.no Phone: +47 69 608838 / +47 41644245E-mail: vigdis.a.grondahl@hiof.no Phone: +47 69 608698 / +4793052634 Østfold University College Faculty of Health- and Social studies N-1757 Halden Norway