Palliative Care to older people with dementia: POP

Symptom management is one of the main aspects of palliative care. People with dementia living in nursing homes often have high levels of pain. Untreated pain cause suffering and reduces quality of life. Pain is a subjective experience, and self-reported pain is the gold-standard of pain assessment. This is often challenging in the target population, due to reduced cognitive function and communication challenges. 

The overall aim of the research project is to develop and test an intervention for systematic pain assessment in people with dementia living in nursing homes, which consider individual variation in pain expressions and ability to self-report. The development of this intervention is rooted in the initial steps of the MRC framework for developing and evaluating complex interventions. The project will include a scoping review (study I), an observational study (study II), an interview study using focus groups (study III) and a feasibility study (study IV).

Project publications:
Kreppen Overen C., Larsson M., Hummelvold Hille

BMJ Open. 12:e063230. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2022-063230

Supervisors

Siren Eriksen
Adelheid Hummelvoll Hillestad

External: Maria Larsson and Ingela Karlsson

PhD-student

Caroline Kreppen Overen