Evaluation of the Benefits of Individualized Advice Administration on Quality of Sleep for the Elderly Living at Home

The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) is a self-report questionnaire that assesses sleep quality over a 1-month time interval. The measure consists of 19 individual items, creating 7 components that produce one global score, and takes 5-10 minutes to complete. Developed by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh, the PSQI is intended to be a standardized sleep questionnaire for clinicians and researchers to use with ease and is used for multiple populations. The questionnaire has been used in many settings, including research and clinical activities, and has been used in the diagnosis of sleep disorders. Clinical studies have found the PSQI to be reliable and valid in the assessment of sleep problems to some degree, but more so with self-reported sleep problems and depression-related symptoms than actigraphic measures.

A sleep diary is a record of a patient's sleep patterns and habits that can be extremely useful in helping doctors make a diagnosis of a sleep disorder and better determine if a sleep study should be prescribed.

Katz Activities of Daily Living is a validated tool to assess functional status as a measurement of the elder's ability to perform activities of daily living independently. Elders are scored yes/no for independence in each of six functions. A score of 6 indicates full function, 4 indicates moderate impairment, and 2 or less implies severe functional impairment.

"Lawton's Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL) scale was developed to assess more complex activities (termed instrumental activities of daily living) necessary for functioning in community settings (e.g., shopping, cooking, managing finances). The capacity to handle these complex functions normally is lost before basic activities of daily living which are measured by Activities of Daily Living scales. Therefore, assessing Instrumental Activities of Daily Living may identify incipient decline in older adults who are otherwise capable and healthy.The Lawton Instrumental Activities of Daily Living scale takes approximately 10 to 15 minutes to administer. It contains 8 items that are rated with a summary score from 0 (low functioning) to 8 (high functioning). This scale can be administered through an interview or by a written questionnaire. The patient or a caregiver who is familiar with the patient can provide the answers."

"Neuropsychiatric Inventory is submitted to the caregiver, if the patient has a Mini Mental State Examination score between 10 and 20.~The Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) was developed by Cummings et al. (1994) to assess dementia-related behavioral symptoms which they felt other measures did not sufficiently address. The NPI originally examined 10 sub-domains of behavioral functioning: delusions, hallucinations, agitation/aggression, dysphoria, anxiety, euphoria, apathy, disinhibition, irritability/lability, and aberrant motor activity. Two more sub-domains have been added since its development: night-time behavioral disturbances and appetite and eating abnormalities (Cummings, 1997). This wide variety of domains means that, unlike other dementia measures, the NPI is able to screen for multiple types of dementia, not just Alzheimer's Disease."

Mini Zarit Caregiver Burden Scale, for the caregiver, if the patient has a Mini Mental State Examination score between 10 and 20.

"It is an 11-question tool to evaluate cognitive functions. The maximum score is 30. A score of 23 or lower is indicative of cognitive impairment. The Mini Mental state examination takes only 5-10 minutes to administer and is therefore practical to use repeatedly and routinely.~The MMSE has been validated and extensively used in both clinical practice and research, since its creation in 1975"

The Cornell scale For Depression in Dementia is a scoring system specifically developed to assess signs and symptoms of major depression in patients with dementia. The 19 parameters measured are clustered into five groups: mood-related signs, behavioural disturbances, physical signs, cyclic functions and ideational disturbances. The Cornell scale For Depression in Dementia has been shown to be sensitive, reliable and valid for assessing depression in patients with Alzheimer's disease.

The Quality of Life in Alzheimer's Disease is a brief, 13-item measure designed specifically to obtain a rating of the patient's Quality of Life from both the patient and the caregiver. It was developed for individuals with dementia, based on patient, caregiver, and expert input, to maximize construct validity, and to ensure that the measure focuses on quality of life domains thought to be important in cognitively impaired older adults. It uses simple and straightforward language and responses \& includes assessments of the individual's relationships with friends and family, concerns about finances, physical condition, mood, and an overall assessment of life quality