Full Text Available

Note: Clicking the button above will open the full text document at the original institutional repository in a new window.

The effects of apathy and depression on cognitive and functional outcomes in Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia initially characterised by short-term memory deficits followed by a progressive cross domain cognitive and functional decline over time and loss of independence in carrying out activities of daily living (ADL). Apathy and depression are a...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Lekhutlile, Tlholego
Other Authors: Njomboro, Progress
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Psychology 2021
Subjects:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1867613222501089280
access_status_str Open Access
author Lekhutlile, Tlholego
author2 Njomboro, Progress
author_browse Lekhutlile, Tlholego
Njomboro, Progress
author_facet Njomboro, Progress
Lekhutlile, Tlholego
author_sort Lekhutlile, Tlholego
collection Thesis
description Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia initially characterised by short-term memory deficits followed by a progressive cross domain cognitive and functional decline over time and loss of independence in carrying out activities of daily living (ADL). Apathy and depression are also the two most frequent neuropsychiatric sequalae associated with AD and have an impact on patients' ability to execute ADLs. Little is still known if apathy subdomains differently predict ADL performance in these patients. In this study, we aimed to quantitatively investigate if global apathy and depression predict ADL performance. We also wanted to establish if the apathy evaluation scale (AES) items resolve into three factors as proposed by Marin and if those factors differently predict performance of ADLs. We recruited a sample of 115 patients diagnosed with probable or possible AD. Basing on current literature, we hypothesised that apathy and depression predict ADL performance. We also hypothesised that AES items will load into three factors relating to cognitive, behavioural and affective apathy subdomains and that these subdomains will differentially predict ADL performance in our patient sample. Our results indicated that high apathy and depression symptoms were associated with problems to carryout ADLs. They also indicated that AES items resolved into a three factor solution in analogy with Marin's conceptualisation but they did not cluster in the manner that he proposed. Finally, when these factors are regressed simultaneously, (derived from factor analysis) only behavioural apathy significantly predicted ADLs.
format Thesis
id oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/33761
institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:32:42.829Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2021
publishDateRange 2021
publishDateSort 2021
publisher Department of Psychology
publisherStr Department of Psychology
record_format dspace
source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/33761 The effects of apathy and depression on cognitive and functional outcomes in Alzheimer's disease Lekhutlile, Tlholego Njomboro, Progress Alzheimer's disease Activities of daily living Apathy Depression Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia initially characterised by short-term memory deficits followed by a progressive cross domain cognitive and functional decline over time and loss of independence in carrying out activities of daily living (ADL). Apathy and depression are also the two most frequent neuropsychiatric sequalae associated with AD and have an impact on patients' ability to execute ADLs. Little is still known if apathy subdomains differently predict ADL performance in these patients. In this study, we aimed to quantitatively investigate if global apathy and depression predict ADL performance. We also wanted to establish if the apathy evaluation scale (AES) items resolve into three factors as proposed by Marin and if those factors differently predict performance of ADLs. We recruited a sample of 115 patients diagnosed with probable or possible AD. Basing on current literature, we hypothesised that apathy and depression predict ADL performance. We also hypothesised that AES items will load into three factors relating to cognitive, behavioural and affective apathy subdomains and that these subdomains will differentially predict ADL performance in our patient sample. Our results indicated that high apathy and depression symptoms were associated with problems to carryout ADLs. They also indicated that AES items resolved into a three factor solution in analogy with Marin's conceptualisation but they did not cluster in the manner that he proposed. Finally, when these factors are regressed simultaneously, (derived from factor analysis) only behavioural apathy significantly predicted ADLs. 2021-08-12T13:54:50Z 2021-08-12T13:54:50Z 2021 2021-08-12T13:54:19Z Master Thesis Masters Master of Arts http://hdl.handle.net/11427/33761 eng application/pdf Department of Psychology Faculty of Humanities
spellingShingle Alzheimer's disease
Activities of daily living
Apathy
Depression
Lekhutlile, Tlholego
The effects of apathy and depression on cognitive and functional outcomes in Alzheimer's disease
thesis_degree_str Master's
title The effects of apathy and depression on cognitive and functional outcomes in Alzheimer's disease
title_full The effects of apathy and depression on cognitive and functional outcomes in Alzheimer's disease
title_fullStr The effects of apathy and depression on cognitive and functional outcomes in Alzheimer's disease
title_full_unstemmed The effects of apathy and depression on cognitive and functional outcomes in Alzheimer's disease
title_short The effects of apathy and depression on cognitive and functional outcomes in Alzheimer's disease
title_sort effects of apathy and depression on cognitive and functional outcomes in alzheimer s disease
topic Alzheimer's disease
Activities of daily living
Apathy
Depression
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/33761
work_keys_str_mv AT lekhutliletlholego theeffectsofapathyanddepressiononcognitiveandfunctionaloutcomesinalzheimersdisease
AT lekhutliletlholego effectsofapathyanddepressiononcognitiveandfunctionaloutcomesinalzheimersdisease