Relationship Between Executive Functioning and Activities of Daily Living in Patients With Relatively Mild Dementia

There is very little research regarding the relationship between tests of executive functioning and actual functional ability in patients with dementia. Thirty-three patients diagnosed with dementia and 35 age- and education-matched healthy controls were administered tests of executing functioning a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied neuropsychology 2007-01, Vol.14 (3), p.208-214
Main Authors: Razani, Jill, Casas, Rachel, Wong, Jennifer T., Lu, Po, Alessi, Cathy, Josephson, Karen
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Activities of Daily Living
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Alzheimer's disease
Case-Control Studies
dementia
Dementia - physiopathology
Dementia - psychology
executive functioning
Female
functional ability
Humans
Male
Neuropsychological Tests
Problem Solving - physiology
Statistics as Topic - methods
Surveys and Questionnaires
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Summary:There is very little research regarding the relationship between tests of executive functioning and actual functional ability in patients with dementia. Thirty-three patients diagnosed with dementia and 35 age- and education-matched healthy controls were administered tests of executing functioning and an observation- and informant-based activities of daily living (ADL). As expected, the results revealed that the controls outperformed the dementia patients on the executive and ADL tests. Additionally, executive functioning correlated significantly with aspects of functional ability in patients with dementia. This relationship was strongest for tests of verbal fluency and a complex test of cognitive flexibility and reasoning ability (i.e., Wisconsin Card Sorting Test). These findings suggest that some executive function tests are more sensitive than others for predicting specific functional abilities and that they may be most useful to healthcare professionals for treatment planning.
ISSN:0908-4282
1532-4826
DOI:10.1080/09084280701509125