Patients with Dementia Assessing their Quality of Life

Introduction: The term “Dementia” does not refer to a single disease, but to a set of chronic diseases that are the result of the atrophy of the Central Nervous System. Brain neurons are constantly degenerating, resulting in large areas of atrophic cerebral cortex; in the final stage, the brain may often weigh less than 1000g.

Purpose: The purpose of this review study is to investigate the quality of life characteristics of dementia patients, and trace ways how it may be improved.

Material and methods: The study material consisted of articles on the topic found in Greek and international databases such as: Google Scholar, Mednet, PubMed, Medline and the Hellenic Academic Libraries Association (HEAL-Link), using the keywords: quality of life, dementia and dementia patients. The exclusion criterion for the articles was the language, except for Greek and English. Mostly, only articles and studies accessible to authors were used.

Results: Dementia is known to have many organic symptoms and complications that health professionals are called upon to deal with and even prevent, thereby promoting the quality of life of these patients. The healing process should also be addressed to the caregivers. Nurses should be encouraged to educate caregivers and patients about the diagnosis, prognosis, pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical strategies that are likely to prove very useful, recognizing that caregivers have an important role to play in managing their problems.

Conclusion: Dementia is a major medical and social problem nowadays, and therefore, the planning of state actions should focus on prevention and management, with the support and expansion of support agencies. Advances in life sciences increase the likelihood of understanding the complex risk factors as regards dementia and suggest appropriate therapeutic interventions.