Article of the month – December 2020

The website committee has chosen the following article as publication of the month December:

Du B, Lakshminarayanan M, Krishna M, Vaitheswaran S, Chandra M, Kunnukattil Sivaraman S, Goswami SP, Rangaswamy T, Spector A, Stoner CR. Psychometric properties of outcome measures in non-pharmacological interventions of persons with dementia in low-and middle-income countries: A systematic review. Psychogeriatrics. 2020 Dec 17. doi: 10.1111/psyg.12647. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 33336529.

In this systematic review outcome measures that are used in Low and Middle income countries to evaluate non-pharmacological interventions were assessed on psychometric properties. 18 measures for cognition, behaviour and psychologicial symptoms, and quality of life were valued as modest at best. The authors mention an urgent need to develop scientifically robust measures for use in these countries.