Person-centered assessment of people living with dementia: Review of existing measures

Introduction Person-centered care and assessment calls for measurement tools that help researchers and providers understand people with dementia, their social relationships, and their experience of the care environment. This paper reviewed available measures and evaluated their psychometric properties. Methods Literature searches of major databases (PsycInfo, PubMed, EBSCO, CINAHL) for papers examining person-centered constructs in samples of people living with dementia or mild cognitive impairment. Reliability and validity coefficients were reviewed and reported. Results We identified 26 unique measures that had been tested in samples of people living with dementia. Twelve measures of hope, well-being, engagement, social relationships, meaning, resilience, stigma, spiritual beliefs and practices, values and preferences, and positive psychology constructs had strong psychometric properties in samples with dementia. Discussion A variety of reliability and valid measures were identified for use in person-centered care and research with people living with dementia. Additional measure development is needed for key person-centered concepts including dignity and strengths.