A Research Report on the Problems Faced by Older Adults with Dementia

This research project investigates the multifaceted challenges faced by older adults suffering from dementia. The report delves into the introduction of dementia, its impact on the personal lives of older individuals, and the various reasons behind its occurrence, including cognitive decline and memory loss. The research explores the different stages of dementia and its common symptoms like memory loss, communication problems, disorientation, and mood changes. Furthermore, the study aims to recommend effective ways to reduce the impact of dementia on older adults, including exploring the significance of the research and formulating research questions and objectives. The methodology involves data collection and analysis, alongside ethical considerations. The findings and discussion sections provide an in-depth analysis of the problems and potential solutions, culminating in a conclusion that summarizes the key insights and offers recommendations for improving the lives of those affected by dementia. This research is crucial for healthcare practitioners, caregivers, and family members to understand and support individuals with dementia effectively.

Research project

Contents
TITLE: WHAT KIND OF PROBLEMS ARE FACED BY OLDER PEOPLE SUFFERING
FROM DEMENTIA IN THE STAGE OF AGING........................................................................3
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
1.1 Introduction......................................................................................................................3
1.2 Aim and Objectives..........................................................................................................4
1.3 Rationale of Research.......................................................................................................4
1.4 Problem Statement............................................................................................................5
1.5 Significance of Research..................................................................................................5
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................6
Dementia.................................................................................................................................6
Impact of dementia on personal life of older people............................................................10
Reasons because of which dementia occur among old age people......................................12
Ways in which dementia within older age people can be reduced.......................................14
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY...................................................................................................15
Methods of Analysis and collection of Data........................................................................17
EXCLUSION AND INCLUSION TECHNIQUE...............................................................18
Research Ethics....................................................................................................................19
RESULTS/FINDINGS..................................................................................................................19
DISCUSSION................................................................................................................................25
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................27
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................29
Books and journals...............................................................................................................29

TITLE: WHAT KIND OF PROBLEMS ARE FACED BY OLDER PEOPLE
SUFFERING FROM DEMENTIA IN THE STAGE OF AGING
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Introduction
Old age is commonly seen as the age which reaches near the life expectancy of individual
or the end of life phase of the human life cycle. Older people are often called as the senior
citizens in the society. It has been acknowledged that with the passing period of time when
individual moves forward towards the older age number of health issues among them starts
increasing (Robinson and et. al., 2019). These health issues might rise due to the past lifestyle of
the person or it might occur due to the current situation or the surrounding of the same person in
negative manner. Health problems’ increasing among the older people during the stage of ageing
not only affects the particular life of the person but at the same time it also affects the lifestyle of
the family members too. Dementia is mainly acknowledged as one of the common problems that
is being mostly identified in the older people. Occurrence of this disease among older people
directly affects their regular based lifestyle at same time (Green, Camilli and Elmore, 2012).
Dementia is mainly related to the disorder related to the mental process that is caused by injury.
This mainly results in the memory disorder, personality changes and impaired reason. With
reference to the older people, it can be said that the respective health issue is commonly seen in
older people that makes their end life time worst if not cared properly. The present investigation
is conducted on the health issues which are being faced by the older people in the stage of
ageing. In this main focus is provided on the dementia that is considered as the most occurring
health problem among old age people. This investigation has been conducted to develop detailed
knowledge on dementia and its impact of on personal life of older people. Furthermore, the study
will gather information on the several reasons due to which dementia occur among old age
people and find several ways that supports older age people in reducing impact of dementia on
them (Gioia, Corley and Hamilton, 2013). In order to develop detailed information on the same
and find out proposed measures that result in reducing the influence of dementia over old age
patients. In this regard, respective aim, objective and questions are developed which would
provide appropriate guidance to whole research team that would contribute in obtaining solutions
towards the core research problems.

1.2 Aim and Objectives
Research aim
The main aim of this research proposal is “To analyse the problems which are faced by
older people suffering from dementia in the stage of aging.”
Research Objectives
The developed research objectives for the current investigation are specified as below:
 To analyse types of health problems faced by old age people.
 To evaluate impact of dementia on personal life of older people.
 To analyse reasons because of which dementia occur among old age people.
 To recommend ways in which dementia within older age people can be reduced.
Research Questions
The formulated research questions for the present research are mentioned as below:
 What are the types of health problems faced by old age people?
 What is the impact of dementia on personal life of older people?
 What are the main reasons because of which dementia occur among old age people?
 What are the ways in which dementia within older age people can be reduced?
1.3 Rationale of Research
The main motive of conducting this investigation is to develop understanding on the
several problems that are being faced by the old age people which is affecting their own life as
well as their family members. The respective investigate would contribute in exploring several
issues as well as problems which are being faced by older people due to dementia in the stage of
ageing (Rosa and et. al., 2018). It also contributes in finding out proposed measures towards the
same by which health care older people can rid off from the same health issue and live their life
effectively without facing much problem associated with the same. The study would also support
investigator in developing their core knowledge on the medical issues that is being faced by the
old people as well as the common issues which is being faced by them due to the core health
problem that affects the effective management of the daily based lifestyles (Kupeli and et. al.,

2018). Apart from this, while looking at the core motive of investigator to conduct the
investigation is to develop several skills, knowledge on the conduction process of the research
that would not only help them out in improvising their professional life. As well as it will
provide contribution in the conducting more effective research in the near future. Some of core
skills that would be developed by the investigation with this investigation are leadership,
communication, decision making, problem solving, presentation, research skill, time
management, team working and several others (Buffel, 2018).
1.4 Problem Statement
The present investigation is conducted for analysing several issues that is being faced by
old age people. It has been analysed that there are several issues such as chronic health
conditions, cognitive health, mental health, physical injury, malnutrition, sensory impairments,
Oral health, bladder control or constipation and so on that are faced by older people. Among
them all the main issue that is commonly determined among older people are dementia which is
placing major influence over the daily based lifestyle of the older people (Latimer, 2018). The
investigation would provide support in exploring these problems as well as the challenges that is
faced by person at older age.
1.5 Significance of Research
The core importance of this project is to emphasise on developing core understanding on
problems which are faced by older people suffering from dementia in the stage of aging. The
main focus of the project in on determining the core concept of dementia, it core reasons due to
which it occurs among old age people, impact of dementia on personal life of older people, main
reasons because of which dementia occur among old age people and ways by which dementia
within older age people can be reduced (Grenier, Lloyd and Phillipson, 2017). This project will
provide detailed knowledge to the learners regarding the dementia and its existence affects old
age people and their regular based activities at regular basis. In addition to this, effective
execution of the project would definitely provide support to the learner as well as readers in
develop knowledge on the same health disease and core influence over the older people or
patient. As a result, by having adequate knowledge on the same, the respective readers would be
able to take preventive measures so that none of the person belongs to their surrounding suffers
with the same. In addition to this, with reference to the healthcare practitioners, the present
investigation is highly important for them as it will provide them knowledge regarding the

influence of the dementia on older people thus they are easily able to provide them effective
treatment and also help the out them getting recover in quicker manner.
In addition to this, the respective study covers each and every area of the dementia
including its symptoms, early signs, risk factors, consequences, and potential ways of
overcoming it effectively and reducing its influence. The overall focus on this project is provided
on the old age people (Shishehgar, Kerr and Blake, 2018). With this study, care homes can also
modify their existing services according to the requiring of the older people in their health
condition. This development in the care home would also make the people especially individual
on who has dementia patient at home easier as they can easily send their parents or the elder old
age people at these places. Also, these care homes are highly established and also have all the
basic facilities as well as the treatment that is required by the patient with dementia. By
considering all of the stated and associated areas, the current investigation has been conducted so
that maximum information towards the same can be gathered effectively (Lui and Nguyen,
2018). Also, the study would also contribute in improvising current conditions of the elder
people who are suffering with Dementia and its proposed ways through which its impact over the
old age people can be reduced.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Dementia
Dementia is basically acknowledged as the collective term that is used to describe several
symptoms of cognitive decline. The main and popularly known symptom is forgetfulness. The
reason behind this disease is the brain disorders and underlying diseases. In addition to this, it
can be said that there are few more common symptoms of these disease such as impairment in
communication, memory and thinking (Johansson and et. al., 2017). Likelihood of having
dementia is mostly seen among the old age people but it often seen among the other ages too. It
has been estimated that around 47.5 million people are suffering from dementia across the world.
Also, the new case of dementia is also identified in every 4 second.
The common symptoms of dementia are specified as below:
Recent memory loss: In this, people often the same questions to others repeatedly. This
can be seen as the initial symptom of dementia which is often noticed among the people.

Problems in communicating: In this, the person specifically faces problem associated
with the languages, also forgets simple words etc. In many cases it has been analyzed that these
people might also uses wrong words.
Disorientation: This simply means that the people get lost on the previously familiar streets
where they have visited a lot of times (Yusif, Soar and Hafeez-Baig, 2016).
Mood changes: They are seen as the mood changes that is sudden as well as unexplained
changes over the disposition or outlook.
Misplacing things: This is often acknowledged as forgetting the places of keeping
regular using the keys as well as wallets. Also, the person might forget to keep the cash at the
right place.
Dementia stages
There are several stages of the dementia which defines the seriousness of the disease
from which the person is going through. The main four stages of dementia are specified as
below:
Mild cognitive impairment: This is the first and foremost stage where the characteristic of
dementia are considered as the basic forgetfulness. This might place among the old age people
but it is the part of the dementia only.
Mild dementia: Here people suffering from dementia often faces problems related to the
cognitive impairment which often influences daily based life of the person. Some of the common
symptoms that have been identified at this stage are memory loss, confusion, personality
changes, getting lost, and difficulty in planning and carrying out tasks (Aldridge, Fisher and
Laidlaw, 2019).
Moderate dementia: At this stage, people often faces problem related to their basic life routine
as they requires more and more help. Here, the numbers of symptoms are quite excessive as
compared to mild dementia. Generally, it has been analysed dementia patient also faces problems
related to combing their own hair and even getting dressed at their own level. Along with this, it
also creates problems related to personality changes such as agitating without any reason and
becoming suspicious (Abdelhafiz and et. al., 2019). Apart from this, the most common problem
determined in this is related to the sleeping. It can be said that patient suffering from dementia
are not able to take appropriate sleep.

Severe dementia: This is the last stage of dementia which is considered as very severe one
among the all the stage as its symptoms are worsen. The main system of dementia patient is that
they faces difficulty in having appropriate communication, they also require full time care from
the nursing staff or family member. It is quite difficult for these people to perform simple tasks
such as sitting, holding someone’s hand and other kind of activities. In addition to this, one more
severe issue related to the same are Bladder control which becomes lost with the passing period
of time (Gagliese, Gauthier, Narain and Freedman, 2018).
There are several types of dementia which are commonly noticed in the surrounding. The main
types of dementia are specified as below along with their detailed explanation towards the same:
Alzheimer’s disease: It is mainly acknowledged as the plaques between the dead cells in brain
as well as tangles in cells. This generally happens due to protein abnormalities. This also places
influence over the size of the brain which shrinks over the period of time.
Mixed dementia: This kind of dementia have symptoms of both the vascular dementia and
Alzheimer’s disease and other associated diseases at single time. Here, it can be said that mixed
sort of dementia might have symptoms related to the diagnosis of two or more types which takes
place at the same time.
Huntington’s disease: This is generally characterised with the specific sort of the uncontrolled
movement which includes characteristic associated with the dementia too (Klaming, Annese,
Veltman and Comijs, 2017).
Parkinson’s disease is mainly acknowledged as the presence of the Lewy bodies. This is also
seen as the disorder of movement which directly leads to the dementia associated symptoms.
Dementia with Lewy bodies is a neurodegenerative condition linked to abnormal structures in
the brain. The brain changes involve a protein called alpha-syncline.
Apart from this, there are few more symptoms of dementia which are generally noticed as the
highly influential disorder are trouble completing everyday tasks, trouble finding the right words,
changes in short-term memory, being repetitive, difficulty adapting to changes, changes in mood,
confusion, finds it hard to follow a storyline and poor sense of direction (Klaming, Annese,
Veltman and Comijs, 2017).
Along with this, it has been later analysed that treatment of dementia is possible but still
it is highly important for the individuals to focus going for the testing procedure first so that it
can be identified in the timely manner and the appropriate decision related to the same can be

taken so that required treatment could get selected on timely manner. The first and foremost step
of the testing memory performance of the individual as well as their cognitive health includes
several set of standardised questions as well as tasks. Along with this, it has been analysed that
there are several studies which clearly depicts that dementia is required to be tested so that
individual can easily identify presence of dementia in them and adopt required appropriate
treatment towards the same so that they can get recovered quickly and live their old lifestyle
again. In addition to this, it has been later analysed that cognitive dementia test is broadly used
and verified by the medical practitioners so that they can deal with the dementia in the timely
manner (Thoma-Lürken and et. al., 2018). While conducting this test around 10 questions are
asked to the patient from whom they can easily determine that whether they are suffering from
dementia or not. The main questions among them include what is your age, date of birth, current
year, present time which is nearer to the hour and many other questions. It can be said that if an
individual answers 6 or less than that then they faces cognitive impairment issues related to the
same. Here, assessment is normally done by the practitioners with observation methods. This test
is also done by the caregivers as well as relatives. In this, the first test done by the doctors is said
to be as the formal assessment with the motive of assessing individual’s mental ability. On the
other hand, if it is talked about the second test, it can be said that this basically performed by
simply asking few questions to the patients which is normally done to effectively assess that the
whether the person is able to remember recent conversation or events, to check that whether
patient are making use of right word or not or they faces difficulty in having conversation with
one another, it can also be assessed by checking out that whether the people are facing difficulty
in taking their medications and managing the money effectively or not, last but not the least the
final assessment is effectively done by simply checking out whether the patient is requiring
appropriate help in transport or not (Russell and et. al., 2017). It can be further said that if the
proposed conducted test clearly depicts that there are symptoms of the memory loss or related to
the same then these patient are then recommended for the blood tests as well as CT brain scan so
that things could get more clearer to them effectively. This can be effectively done by simply
going for the clinical tests which is also supportive in finding out actual problem, potential
causes, chances of recovery as well as appropriate treatment with which things could managed
effectively. In addition to this, another test is named as the mini mental state examination which
is also the part of the cognitive test that is supportive in measuring few areas such as word recall,

language abilities, visuospatial skills, orientation to time and place, attention and calculation and
many others (Fetherstonhaugh, McAuliffe, Bauer and Shanley, 2017). It can be here said that
usage of the mini mental state examination is helpful in diagnosing the dementia which is
generally caused by Alzheimer’s disease. The respective test is also supportive in analysing the
overall severity of the disease along with the best suitable treatment that can contribute in curing
the things in rightful manner.
Impact of dementia on personal life of older people
As per the views expressed by the author named as Rosa, F. and et. al., (2018), it has been
analysed that getting older is the part of every individuals life from which everyone goes through
with the passing period of time. The main problem that being faced by the individuals with the
passing age is having difficulty in remembering things which is also seen as the first sign of
Alzheimer or dementia. It can be said that there are only one percent people across the world
who faced problem related to dementia in the form of memory loss (Reid, 2018). There are
several other symptoms of dementia through individual which can easily determine that they
there they are suffering from dementia or not. Some of the common symptoms of dementia are
loss of memory, decreased ability of decision making, changes in expressing their feelings and
emotions with other person, problem associated with the socializing, facing problem in executing
problems related to daily living, having difficulty in understanding the language and speaking
things, changes in the personality, not able to make appropriate judgement and many others. All
of these can be seen in the person when he/she may be suffering from dementia. In other words
dementia can be seen as the degeneration of the human brain which directly leads to reflect many
changes in the individual such as changes in thinking process or ability of the person, socializing,
thinking, taking part in normal daily activities. On the other hand, it has been further analysed
that dementia is not only affecting personal life of the individual but at the same time it is placing
major influence over their family and the companions with whom they are spending their life
(Reid, 2018). It has been seen that dementia many a times develops feeling of depression among
the individual as they feels that they are of no use now because they are highly dependent on
other people especially family. It has also been observed that people who suffers from dementia
requires a person every time who can provide them support in executing their daily based life
activities. Dependency on other related to every small thing makes person highly depressed that
starts thinking that they are burden on other people.

On the other hand, if it is talked about the personal and family life of the person suffering
from dementia, it can be said that the respective person might losing its relations with the family
members. This is so because, dementia makes it difficult for the person to execute its work at
own level thus the work pressure as well as mental stress of the person increases with the passing
period time (Robinson and et. al., 2019). This simply develops negative feeling among the family
member towards the person as their health issue is becoming burden for them. With the passing
period of time, these family members might develop rude behaviour towards the individual
suffering with dementia. As a result, this becomes another most influential reason which
develops mental pressure on the person suffering from dementia.
Dementia is a syndrome, basically of a chronic or progressive nature in which there is
deterioration in cognitive function beyond what might be expected from normal ageing. It
influences memory, thinking, orientation, and comprehension, calculation, learning capacity,
language and judgement. The destruction in cognitive purpose is usually accompanied and
infrequently preceded by decline in emotional control, social behaviour or inspiration (Rosa and
et. al., 2018). Dementia outcomes from a range of diseases and injuries that mainly or
secondarily influence the brain like Alzheimer’s disease or stroke. Dementia is one of the main
causes of disability and dependency between older people globally. It can be overpowering not
only for the individual who have it but also for their carers and families. There is often a lack of
awareness and acknowledging of dementia on carers, family and society at large can be physical,
psychological, social and economical. As per view of D. LoGiudice and R. Watson (2020),
respective disease is an ordinary situation of the elderly characterised by numerous cognitive
shortfalls ensuing in a decline from earlier degree of utility. In the older individual several
pathologies make their contribution, considering changes normally seen in Alzheimer syndrome,
dementia with Lewy bodies along with vascular modifications. This disease negatively affects
the personal life of old people by creating several unfavourable impacts over them. Due to this
sickness, they loss their memory, loss of acknowledging and judgemental power, minimised
capability to devise determinations and many more negative impact (Torres, 2019). Along with
this, cause of dementia, changes are occurred in the person expresses their emotions, changes in
personality, problem coping with daily living, problem with speech and acknowledging language
as well as they also face problems to be socialise.