Indiana Palliative Excellence in Alzheimer's Care Efforts

The overarching goal of this research is to improve the care of community dwelling patients with dementia and their family caregivers through an innovative model of supportive care that combines an existing, evidence-based intervention for dementia care with an innovative intervention for palliative care in dementia. The intervention projects this care into the homes of patients and caregivers, empowering caregivers, and integrating with ongoing care. IN-PEACE will enroll 200 patient-caregiver dyads, randomizing 100 dyads each to the intervention and usual care arms and follow for 24 months with quarterly outcome assessments. The core of the multi-component intervention is regular, proactive telephone contact by a dementia care coordinator (DCC; social worker or RN) to anticipate and identify patients' symptoms and caregivers needs and address by utilizing specific, evidence-based protocols. Protocols cover basic dementia care, caregiver distress, neuropsychiatric symptoms, pain, navigating the hospital, feeding difficulties, and transition to hospice. The intervention also involves advance care planning and support with caregivers tailored to decisions faced in dementia care, highlighting where palliative care options can replace the default that often results in burdensome treatments.

The primary aim of IN-PEACE is to test the effect of the intervention on patients' neuropsychiatric symptoms. Other aims include testing the effect of IN-PEACE on patients' overall symptom outcomes, caregiver mood and distress, and the provision of burdensome treatments to patients (hospitalizations and emergency room visits).

Dementia is an increasingly prevalent, costly and burdensome condition. The dramatic aging of the US population is creating a dementia "epidemic" that our health care system is poorly prepared to handle. More than 5 million people are affected by Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related dementias in 2016, with that number estimated to nearly triple to 13.8 million by 2050. The direct health care costs alone for dementia care are projected to increase from $236 billion in 2016 to more than $1 trillion in 2050. In addition to cognitive and functional deterioration, patients with dementia experience behavioral and psychological complications such as agitation and depression. Family caregivers of patients with dementia experience higher levels of anxiety, depression, chronic fatigue, and an increased mortality risk.

Dementia and palliative care are national research priorities. Both dementia and palliative care have been identified as priority conditions for research and quality improvement by numerous organizations such as the Institute of Medicine, National Quality Forum, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and National Institute on Aging. In addition, a workgroup developing milestones for care and support under the U.S. National Alzheimer's Plan has explicitly stated that palliative care needs to be incorporated throughout the course of caring for patients and families affected by dementia.

2.0 Rationale and Specific Aims

Aim 1: To test the effect of the IN-PEACE intervention on patients' neuropsychiatric symptoms (e.g., agitation/aggression, anxiety, repetitive behaviors). Mixed effects models will be used to compare repeated Neuropsychiatric Inventory Questionnaire (NPI-Q) scores obtained at 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, and 24 months. Repeatedly measured NPI-Q scores will be the dependent variable in the model.

Aim 2: To test the effect of the IN-PEACE intervention on patients' overall symptom outcomes. Analyses in this aim will use repeatedly measured Symptom Measures in End-of-Life Dementia (SM-EOLD) scores over 24 months of follow-up as the dependent variable in the mixed effects model, similarly to the approach described for Aim 1.

Aim 3: To test the effect of the IN-PEACE intervention on caregivers' distress and mood. Aim 3 analyses will use repeatedly measured caregiver NPI-Q distress scores and caregiver Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) over 24 months of follow-up as the dependent variables in separate mixed effects models, similar to the approach for Aim 1.

Aim 4: Evaluate the effect of the IN-PEACE intervention on ER/hospital use. ER/hospitalization events will be obtained from accessing electronic medical records maintained by the Indiana Health Information Exchange (IHIE) and the Indiana Network for Patient Care (INPC). Poisson regression models will be used to compare rates of any ER/hospitalization event between the two groups while adjusting for dementia severity and significant baseline variables that differ between the two groups.

Eligibility Criteria:
Inclusion Criteria: Community-dwelling and living in the Indianapolis metropolitan area; Patient with an established diagnosis of dementia of any etiology; Dementia in the moderate (FAST stage 5) to severe stage (FAST 6-7); and English-speaking Primary caregiver informant enrolled in study.

Exclusion Criteria: Patient with dementia residing in a nursing facility or receiving hospice care; Patient or Caregiver with long-standing history of severe mental illness or Psychiatric disorder preexisting the dementia diagnosis. Initially, non-English speaking patients were excluded. On April 14, 2020, Institutional Review Board (IRB) Amendment eliminated this exclusion so non-English speaking patients could be enrolled as long as their Caregiver was English-speaking and able to complete assessments.