Quality of Life and the Experience of Living with Early-Stage Alzheimer’s Disease

BACKGROUND: There is a need to better understand the experience of patients living with Alzheimer's disease (AD) in the early stages. OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to evaluate the perception of quality of life in patients with early-stage AD. METHODS: A multicenter, non-interventional study was conducted including patients of 50–90 years of age with prodromal or mild AD, a Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score ≥22, and a Clinical Dementia Rating-Global score (CDR-GS) of 0.5.–1.0. The Quality of Life in Alzheimer ’s Disease (QoL-AD) questionnaire was used to assess health-related quality of life. A battery of self-report instruments was used to evaluate different psychological and behavioral domains. Associations between the QoL-AD and other outcome measures were analyzed using Spearman’s rank correlations. RESULTS: A total of 149 patients were included. Mean age (SD) was 72.3 (7.0) years and mean disease duration was 1.4 (1.8) years. Mean MMSE score was 24.6 (2.1). The mean QoL-AD score was 37.9 (4.5). Eighty-three percent (n = 124) of patients had moderate-to-severe hopelessness, 22.1% (n = 33) had depressive symptoms, and 36.9% (n = 55) felt stigmatized. The quality of life showed a significant positive correlation with self-efficacy and negative correlations with depression, emotional and practical consequences, stigma, and hopelessness. CONCLUSION: Stigma, depressive symptoms, and hopelessness are frequent scenarios in AD negatively impacting quality of life, even in a population with short disease duration and minimal cognitive impairment.