¿Necesitas Español?
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 one-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.
- We are currently meeting with participants over Zoom to have them complete 6 choice tasks. We will meet with them 3 times over the course of 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
November 2024: DMAR attends GSA in Seattle, WA
In November, members of the DMAR project attended the Gerontological Society of America Annual Scientific Meeting in Seattle, WA. Jean O. Taylor, PhD presented a poster about the challenges in supportive care in the context of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. Maryam Abdel Magid presented a poster about the themes in cultural norms that affect dementia care transitions.
September 2024: The Use of a Visual Aid to Facilitate Conversations about Supportive Care
We are excited to share a publication authored by DMAR team members in the Journal of Biomedical Informatics in September 2024. The paper, A visual approach to facilitating conversations about supportive care options in the context of cognitive impairment, explores a visual elicitation technique to facilitate conversations about future supportive care needs.
Learn More: Read the Publication
September 2024: DMAR Community Advisory Board Meeting
The project team held its biannual DMAR Community Advisory Board Meeting on September 10, 2024. At these meetings, the team will share an overview of the project and study progress before presenting initial findings and opening up for discussion. Thank you to our Community Advisory Board for providing insights and feedback.
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.