Dementia is a progressive illness, and its behavioral and psychological symptoms are, for caregivers, the most difficult symptoms to manage. While recent research has demonstrated how collaborative care can reduce these symptoms and reduce stress for caregivers, the model requires continuous monitoring of the symptoms. What’s needed is a less arduous way of monitoring changes in symptoms.

A new questionnaire for assessing dementia progression has now been validated. The Healthy Aging Brain Care Monitor is simple, user-friendly and sensitive to change in symptoms. Its 31 items cover cognitive, functional, and behavioral and psychological symptoms of the patient, as well as caregiver quality of life, and takes about six minutes for a caregiver to complete.

Some of the specific items that may be of interest include:

• Repeating the same things over and over
• Forgetting the correct month or year
• Handling finances
• Planning, preparing or serving meals
• Learning to use a tool, appliance, or gadget

You can see the full questionnaire at http://www.indydiscoverynetwork.org/HealthyAgingBrainCareMonitor.html. The HABC Monitor and scoring rules are available without charge.

The four factors (cognitive; functional; behavioral and psychological; caregiver quality of life) were all significantly correlated, with one exception: cognitive and caregiver quality of life.

The validating study involved 171 caregivers, of whom 52% were the children of the patients, 34% were spouses, 6% were siblings, and 4% were grandchildren. The participant group included 61% identifying as white, 38% African-American, and 1% other. Only 1% was Hispanic.

The study found good internal consistency (0.73–0.92); good correlations with the longer and more detailed Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) total score and NPI caregiver distress score; and greater sensitivity to three-month change compared with NPI “reliable change” groups.

The value of this new clinical tool lies in its brevity. Described as a ‘blood pressure cuff’ for dementia symptoms, the one-page questionnaire is designed to fit into a health visit easily.

The researchers note some caveats, including the fact that it was validated in a memory care practice setting and not yet in a primary care setting, and (more importantly) only over a three-month period. Future projects will assess its sensitivity to change over longer periods, and in primary care.