Effects of comprehensive intervention on life quality among the elderly with Alzheimer Disease and their caregivers based on mixed models.

The study analysed 126 people, not the 150 recruited, and it was done in one nursing home, so results may not apply elsewhere. The intervention was short at six months, and the authors say the sample was small and intervention time short. Patients and controls lived in the same nursing home, so the control group may have been contaminated by the intervention. The paper says patients did not know their group, but it does not clearly say outcome assessors or caregivers were blinded. The ADLQ is described as higher scores meaning more dependence, yet the paper reports score increases as improvement, so daily-living results are hard to interpret. CDR is a dementia impairment rating, but the paper describes CDR score changes as improvement without clarifying direction. No baseline caregiver information was collected, so caregiver changes may reflect unmeasured differences. Most participants were older and had severe AD, so findings may not apply to milder or community-dwelling AD. The intervention was a bundle; the study cannot separate routine drugs, health education, self-care training, exercise, cognitive activities, social activities, or caregiver training.

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The supplied text does not state a funding source.

Do not conclude the added team-based package improved patients' quality of life. The main patient quality-of-life comparison was not significant, and the intervention group also received routine drug care and health education, so no single component can be credited.