OBJECTIVE: To assess if and how demented patients' living conditions affect their level of functioning. DESIGN: A prospective concurrent control-study. SETTING: Sundsvall, an industrial community in the middle of Sweden. PARTICIPANTS: Forty-six demented patients in group-living (GL-group) and 62 controls (C-group). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Cognitive function, ADL-capacity and behaviour were measured every third month during one year. RESULTS: Both groups deteriorated, but the decline was significantly slower in the GL-group regarding some ADL-functions, e.g. dressing and motor functions, whereas some behavioural disturbances were significantly more frequent in the GL-group. No differences were observed regarding the level of cognitive function. CONCLUSION: The living condition has small effects on cognitive function and ADL-capacity. The behavioural disturbances observed in GL should be the focus of future research.
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Wimo et al. (1995) studied this question.
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