Norwegian Centre for Ageing and Health introduces Disease Containment Measures Among Older Adults During the Covid-19 Pandemia
Photo by Todd Cravens
Norwegian Centre for Ageing and Health is recruiting patients for the clinical trial of Disease Containment Measures Among Older Adults During the Covid-19 Pandemia (Co-AiT).
This study will examine which impact lockdown strategies intending to prevent the spread of COVID-19 had on people with cognitive impairment and dementia.
Comprehensive data from two large health studies in Norway, conducted before and after the COVID-19 outbreak, will be linked with health register data on the use of health care services and medication. Further, it will be conducted a survey addressing questions on social isolation and use of communicative technology, from March 2020 to January 2021. The knowledge gained from this study can improve the health care system's ability to respond more adequately to pandemics and other unforeseen events, so that the negative consequences for older adults with dementia and cognitive impairment can be reduced.
The study will take place at the Norwegian National Advisory Unit of Ageing and Health, Tønsberg, Norway.
To prevent the spread of COVID-19 societies around the world have implemented various levels of lockdown strategies. Norway locked down major parts of the society from March 2020. Specifically, this meant that public services were closed (e.g. most in-home healthcare services, day care centres, group exercise/gyms and services that offer physiotherapy, medical and psychological consultation). For people with cognitive impairment and dementia, social distancing and self-isolation may have limited the use of normal strategies (e.g., distraction, stimulation, and social interaction) that are routinely adopted to manage some of the dementia symptoms, such as neuropsychiatric symptoms. A lack of daily routines may change the clinical conditions of patients with dementia. Worsening of preexisting and/or the onset of new neuropsychiatric symptoms may occur, in addition to a possible decline of cognitive and functional capacities
The overarching aim of this project is to provide decision makers with vital information to improve the healthcare of people with dementia and cognitive impairment in the context of an epidemic.
This page provides a more detailed overview of this clinical trial: https://ichgcp.net/clinical-trials-registry/NCT04792086
