Abstract

Objectives:Behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) are among the most challenging aspects of dementia for individuals living with dementia and their caregivers. Identifying factors associated with resilience to BPSD may inform interventions to reduce them. The present research examines whether purpose in life is associated with BPSD in the last year of life.

Method:Participants from the Health and Retirement Study were selected if they reported on their sense of purpose, had evidence of a memory impairment, died across the follow-up, and a proxy completed the End of Life survey that included BPSD (N = 2473). Self-reported sense of purpose was tested as a predictor of the sum of symptoms and each indivdual symptom in the last year of life.

Results:Purpose in life was associated with fewer BPSD overall. Of the individual symptoms, purpose was associated with less risk of psychological symptoms, specfiically less depression, periodic confusion, uncontrolled temper, but not with motor or perceptual symptoms.

Conclusion: These results are consistent with growing evidence that purpose is associated with better cognitive outcomes. Purpose may be a useful target of intervention to improve outcomes across the spectrum of dementia

摘要

目标：对于痴呆症患者及其护理人员来说，痴呆症的行为和心理症状 (BPSD) 是最具挑战性的方面之一。识别与 BPSD 恢复力相关的因素可能会为减少这些因素的干预措施提供信息。本研究探讨了生命的目的是否与生命最后一年的 BPSD 相关。

方法：如果健康与退休研究的参与者报告了自己的目标感、有记忆障碍的证据、在随访过程中死亡，并且代理人完成了包括 BPSD 在内的生命终结调查（N =  2473 ）。自我报告的目标感被测试为生命最后一年症状总和和每个单独症状的预测因子。

结果：总体而言，人生目标与较少的 BPSD 相关。在个体症状中，目的与较少的心理症状风险相关，特别是较少的抑郁、周期性混乱、不受控制的脾气，但与运动或知觉症状无关。

结论： 这些结果与越来越多的证据相一致，即目的与更好的认知结果相关。目的可能是改善各种痴呆症结局的有用干预目标