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Project Dates: June 1, 2020 – March 31, 2025
Older adults with dementia and their family often have to make decisions about more supportive care. However, the voices and preferences of older adults with dementia are often not included in these decisions. The goals of the Decision-Making in Alzheimer’s Research (DMAR) team and partners are to keep older adults with dementia involved in decision-making, better understand their decision-making processes, and create a novel tool to identify preferences related to transitions in supportive care.
Achieving Our Goals
We are achieving our goals through the following activities:
- We have conducted interviews with a diverse group of older adults who have varying degrees of dementia, their caregivers, and dementia care providers to gain a better understanding of decision-making related to transitions in care.
- We have developed and piloted a tool (based on our interviews) to assess preferences of older adults with dementia.
- We are following care preferences of older adults with dementia and their caregivers over a two-year period to:
- Identify differences in preferences between older adults with dementia and their caregivers.
- Assess changes in preferences over time.
Longitudinal Study in Progress
We have now closed our enrollment for new participants.
- The study has enrolled over 130 pairs of older adults (55+) with memory loss + their informal caregiver (involved family/friend) to test a choice tool designed to better understand preferences related to transitions in care.
- Participants are completing 6 chioce tasks that are administered primarily via Zoom three times over 12 months.
If you are a current participant in the DMAR study, you can contact the study team through email, dmar-study@uw.edu, or by phone at 206-543-3071
Thank you!
News & Updates
DMAR Spring Celebration
We gathered to celebrate our research assistant, Sarah Domai, who has completed her MPH at UW! Sarah joined the DMAR project in June 2022 and has been a pivotal member of the team. We thank Sarah for her dedication to this research and hard work – Congratulations!
February 2024 DMAR Community Advisory Board Meeting
The project team will hold its biannual DMAR Community Advisory Board Meeting on February 16, 2023. At these meetings, the team will share an overview of the project and study progress before discussing initial findings and major themes from interviews with people with dementia and their caregivers — professional and unpaid. Thank you to our Community Advisory Board for engaging in discussion with us and providing insights and feedback.
Sharing the Challenges and Opportunities Learned
We are excited to share a publication authored by DMAR team members in the Journal of American Geriatrics Society. The paper discusses challenges and strategies for recruiting older adults with dementia and Alzheimer’s into research studies in the context of Covid-19. Issues related to recruiting older adults from racial and ethnic minority groups are also addressed.
Learn More: Read the Publication
More on the UW Health Promotion Research Blog
Dementia and Memory Care Resources
Here are some resources on Alzheimer’s disease and memory loss from organizations such as the Alzheimer’s Association and the MemoryHub.
Alzheimer’s Disease and other dementias:
- About Alzheimer’s Disease (PDF)
- Communicating with your Health Care Team (PDF)
- For Caregivers: Taking Care of Yourself (PDF)
- If you would like more information like this visit:
In Washington State:
- Memory Hub: A place for for Dementia-Friendly Community, Collaboration and Impact led by UW Memory and Brain Wellness Center (MBWC)
Contact Us
Questions? Please contact Astoria Ho, Research Coordinator, at astoriah@uw.edu or leave a message at 206-543-3071.
The Decision-Making in Alzheimer’s Research (DMAR) project is made possible thanks to $4 million in funding (grant number R01-AG066957) from the National Institute on Aging.