Medical Decision‐Making Capacity in Early‐Stage Alzheimer Patients: Comparison With Healthy Controls and Benefit of Assistive Information

BACKGROUND: Early-stage Alzheimer Disease (AD) may lead to restricted decision-making capacity and without standardized instruments, there is great variability in determining patients' ability to give consent. This study aimed to assess decision-making capacity of AD patients in comparison to a healthy control group and investigated the usefulness of visual aids. METHODS: A group of 30 ad patients and 30 healthy controls were compared using the MacArthur Competence Assessment Tool for Treatment (MacCAT-T). Additionally, we implemented a modified version of the MacCAT-T with visual aids. RESULTS: Results revealed a significant difference in the MacCAT-T domain of Understanding between the AD and control group after adjustment for age, sex, and education. No significant differences were found for Appreciation, Reasoning, or Expression of Choice. Adding visual aids led to no significant improvements. CONCLUSIONS: Standardized assessments can be valuable tools for determining the decision-making capacity of patients with early-stage AD. The efficacy of visual aids should be further investigated.