Direct and indirect assessments of activities of daily living in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer disease

J Geriatr Psychiatry Neurol. 2015 Mar;28(1):19-26. doi: 10.1177/0891988714541874. Epub 2014 Jul 11.

Abstract

Background: There is limited information about the functional profile of behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD).

Objective: To compare direct and indirect assessments of activities of daily living (ADLs) in bvFTD and Alzheimer disease (AD) and their relationship with cognitive performance.

Methods: In all, 20 patients with bvFTD, 30 patients with AD, and 34 normal controls (NCs), matched for age, education, and severity of dementia, completed the Direct Assessment of Functional Performance (DAFS-BR) and usual cognitive measures. The Disability Assessment for Dementia (DAD) was completed by caregivers.

Results: In DAFS-BR, patients with bvFTD and AD had similar performance but lower than NCs. In DAD, there were no significant differences for effective performance, but patients with bvFTD had lower scores for initiation and planning/organization. Patients with bvFTD were less impaired than AD in cognition.

Conclusion: Functional changes in bvFTD seem to be better documented by indirect measures.

Keywords: Alzheimer disease; activities of daily living; behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia; cognition; executive functions; functional status.

MeSH terms

  • Activities of Daily Living / psychology*
  • Aged
  • Alzheimer Disease / diagnosis
  • Alzheimer Disease / epidemiology*
  • Alzheimer Disease / psychology*
  • Behavior
  • Caregivers
  • Case-Control Studies
  • Cognition
  • Dementia / psychology
  • Disability Evaluation
  • Executive Function
  • Female
  • Frontotemporal Dementia / diagnosis
  • Frontotemporal Dementia / epidemiology*
  • Frontotemporal Dementia / psychology*
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Neuropsychological Tests / standards
  • Predictive Value of Tests
  • Severity of Illness Index