The RSELVES Study: Remote Sensing of (older adult partners') Engagement in Life and Variability in Everyday Support

PROJECT SUMMARY
Alzheimer’s disease is a leading cause of functional disability among older adults worldwide. Despite the
inevitability of functional impairment in Alzheimer’s disease, large heterogeneity in the rate and order that specific
functions are lost suggests that there are undiscovered ways to slow the progression of functional decline. The
majority of older adults are married or co-habiting with an intimate partner, and have daily routines that are
interdependent (i.e. synchronous activities or complementary division of functions such as shopping and
cooking). Despite strong evidence that interdependence in functioning exists in other older adult couples, there
is very little dyadic research on functional decline in the context of preclinical or clinical Alzheimer’s disease.
Longitudinal studies have established that the continuum of dementia-related functional decline begins years
prior to diagnosis and at wide range of impairment in cognition for most functions. Other previous studies have
demonstrated that frequency of engagement in daily activities begins to decline prior to loss of functional abilities.
The overall goal of the “RSELVES Study: Remote Sensing of (older adult couples’) Engagement in Life and
Variability in Everyday Support” is to examine the intra-dyadic patterns and change in daily life engagement and
functional interdependence along cognitive and well-being trajectories in older adult couples at high-risk of
developing Alzheimer’s disease. We will use an innovative digital data technology platform developed by the
Oregon Center for Aging and Technology, and a dyadic approach informed by the Developmental-Contextual
Model of Couple Synchrony to discover changes in life engagement and function in 100 older adult couples. The
aims of this study are to characterize baseline interdependence in patterns of life engagement and function
among couples with a partner who is at high risk for dementia (Aim 1); evaluate longitudinal dyadic change in
life engagement (e.g. dyadic disengagement or partner compensation) and support (Aim 2); and determine the
extent to which dyadic life engagement and support appraisals mitigate the influence of cognitive impairment on
functional impairment and well-being in older adult couples (Aim 3). Reframing AD-related functional decline in
couples as an interdependent process and measuring the degree of synchrony in activities digitally will uncover
the early dynamics of changes in life engagement among older adult couples and highlight novel opportunities
to target couples’ daily routines in order to delay the “cascade of losses” leading to functional dependence in
persons living with AD and degradations to well-being.

Grant Number: 5R01AG080644-04
NIH Institute/Center: NIH
Principal Investigator: Lyndsey Anderson