About
Humans need social connection. People living with dementia describe aspects of social connection as critical to quality of life. Good social connection is also associated with better physical, mental and cognitive health, including among long-term (LTC) care home residents. Measures of social connection have several limitations including not being designed for people with cognitive impairment, not capturing the subjective experience of these residents and lack of evidence for psychometric properties.
The characteristics of long-term care environments and residents require tailored measurement approaches which must also be evaluated in context of the changing profile of residents. SONNET Study aims to further the health and care of people living in long-term care homes by improving the measurement of social connection.
Team Members
Jennifer Bethell & Andrew Sommerlad (co-principal investigators)
Katherine McGilton, Gill Livingston, Sube Banerjee, Kirsten Corazzini, David Edvardsson, Hannah O’Rourke.
Questions
#1. What measures assess social connection in LTC homes and what are their psychometric properties?
#2. What do people living with dementia, LTC residents, families, clinicians, care staff, and researchers consider to be the important elements of social connection in LTC?
#3. Can a new measure adequately assess social connection among LTC residents living with dementia?
Our Goals
-
Appraise measures.
We will systematically review measurement instruments that assess social connection in long-term care home residents, including both dementia-specific and generic measures. In these analyses, we will identify and highlight any distinct findings from dementia-specific measurement instruments.
-
Engage stakeholders.
We will conduct focus groups and qualitative interviews, in Canada and the UK, about important aspects of social connection (and its measurement) for long-term care home residents, including specific considerations for long-term care residents living with dementia and at different stages of dementia.
-
Develop and test a measure.
We will develop a measure (or measures) evaluating subjective and/or objective social connection and will then establish initial psychometric properties – acceptability, feasibility, validity and reliability. We anticipate subsequently working with our collaborators for additional psychometric testing in other long-term care settings and populations to establish definitive psychometrics.
Funding
This work is supported by an Advancing Research on Care and Outcome Measurement (ARCOM) grant from the Alzheimer's Association and Brain Canada, in collaboration with LINC-AD (Leveraging an Interdisciplinary Consortium to Improve Care and Outcomes for Persons living with Alzheimer’s and Dementia).