Project data

Project name:	Development of an instrument for the differentiated assessment of everyday impairments due to cognitive decline processes
Running time:	02/2019 - 08/2022
Funding code:
Project organiser:
Project management:	Prof Dr Tobias Luck
Employee:
Project partners/consortium:	Prof Dr Steffi G. Riedel-Heller, MPH, University of Leipzig
Funding amount:
Third-party donors:	Deutsche Alzheimergesellschaft e.V. - Dementia self-help organisation

Summary of the project

When diagnosing dementia according to the international classification systems (ICD-10, DSM-5), it is extremely important to carefully record the extent to which patients can still cope with their everyday life, as even mild forms of dementia must be proven to have impaired everyday functions. Despite this enormous importance of everyday impairments, diagnosticians are given a surprising amount of leeway when recording them. The aim of the proposed research project was to provide a standardised German-language instrument for the differentiated assessment of everyday impairments due to neurodegenerative degradation processes. In project phase 1 (Nordhausen University of Applied Sciences), a pilot version of the assessment instrument was created. In project phase 2, the psychometric evaluation and finalisation of the assessment instrument took place as part of a pilot study with test subjects without cognitive deficits, with mild neurocognitive disorders and with clinically manifest dementia. The provision of the standardised assessment instrument should represent a significant starting point for improving the early detection and (differential) diagnosis of dementia and its preliminary stages of mild neurocognitive disorders in research and clinical practice and thus contribute to a substantial improvement in the care situation of those affected as well as to relieving the burden on their relatives.