Self-compassion and Quality of Life After Dementia Diagnosis

Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust

Status: Enrolling

Conditions: Dementia

Study type: Observational

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT06465173

PID 17089

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study aims to investigate whether self-compassion is associated with older adult's quality of life after a diagnosis of dementia, and whether perceived threat posed by dementia mediates this relationship. Self-compassion has been found to be positive in supporting individuals in times of difficulty, in adjustment processes and older adults' wellbeing. While different factors have begun to be identified which are associated with individuals' psychological wellbeing and adjustment following a dementia diagnosis, little is known about the influence of self-compassion.

Participants will be recruited via NHS memory clinics, Join Dementia Research and from the community via third-sector organisations. Individuals will be invited to attend a Microsoft Teams/telephone appointment in which informed consent and cognitive screening processes will take place at the start. Eligible participants will then be invited to continue to complete measures administered by a researcher and an interview question. Participants will be offered the opportunity to complete the measures in a second session (within 8 weeks) or using the online survey software, Qualtrics, if preferred.

A small pilot study (n = 5) will take place prior to the main study.

Enrollment: 23 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 65+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• An older adult aged ≥ 65 years
• A confirmed diagnosis of dementia received within the past 12 months
• They have knowledge of their diagnosis
• They have English language proficiency
• They have capacity to give informed consent to participation.

Exclusion criteria

• They are deemed to lack capacity to give informed consent to participate (as per the Mental Capacity Act, 2005).
• They have a diagnosis of early-onset dementia, defined as individuals who are aged < 65 at diagnosis
• A score on the MoCA Blind (Nasreddine, 2022b) screening measure of <7 out of 22, which is calculated as equivalent to <10 out of 30 on the MoCA (Nasreddine et al., 2005).

Trial design

23 participants in 2 patient groups

'High self-compassion' group

Description:

Participants' total mean score on the Self-compassion Scale - Short Form (Raes et al., 2011) will be used as the independent variable. A median split (+/-1 standard error of the median) on the Self-compassion Scale - Short Form will be used to retrospectively allocate participants to groups, with participants scoring ≥ + 1 standard error of the median on the Self-compassion Scale - Short Form allocated to a 'High self-compassion' group.

'Low self-compassion' group

Description:

Participants' total mean score on the Self-compassion Scale - Short Form (Raes et al., 2011) will be used as the independent variable. A median split (+/-1 standard error of the median) on the Self-compassion Scale - Short Form will be used to retrospectively allocate participants to groups, with participants scoring ≤ - 1 standard error of the median on the Self-compassion Scale - Short Form allocated to a 'Low self-compassion' group.