Assessing Assistive Technology’s Quality of Life Outcomes with Dementia

This article presents a review of assessments that evaluate Quality of Life (QOL) outcomes as a result of Assistive Technology (AT) intervention among older adults with dementia and the further development of an outcome assessment
framework specific to this area of research. An overview is presented of relevant AT outcomes assessments and dementia-specific QOL assessments. The framework is based on a previous version first proposed by the authors in 2010[1] and revisions arrived at through working on the ISISEMD project[2][3]. During the course of the ISISEMD trials, issues arose in evaluating QOL in dementia with AT interventions. A literature review revealed that there is no appropriate measurement tool to examine QOL outcomes as a result of AT interaction in dementia. This needs to be addressed in order to further
develop the fields of AT outcomes measurement, QOL assessment and dementia care. Through the use of the proposed framework, researchers and clinicians can better determine which ATs will stimulate the desired intervention outcomes as well as measure their effectiveness. It is research with the direction to close the variance between AT use in dementia and QOL outcomes with empirical demonstration.