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Piamjariyakul U, McKenrick SR, Smothers A, Giolzetti A, Melnick H, Beaver M, Shafique S, Wang K, Carte KJ, Grimes B, Haut MW, Navia RO, Patrick JH, Wilhelmsen K. Developing, implementing, and evaluating the visiting Neighbors' program in rural Appalachia: A quality improvement protocol. PLoS One 2024; 19:e0296438. [PMID: 38166130 PMCID: PMC10760886 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0296438] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/11/2023] [Accepted: 12/12/2023] [Indexed: 01/04/2024] Open
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Older adults living alone in rural areas frequently experience health declines, social isolation, and limited access to services. To address these challenges, our medical academic university supported a quality improvement project for developing and evaluating the Visiting Neighbors program in two rural Appalachian counties. Our Visiting Neighbors program trained local volunteers to visit and guide rural older adults in healthy activities. These age-appropriate activities (Mingle, Manage, and Move- 3M's) were designed to improve the functional health of older adults. The program includes four in-home visits and four follow-up telephone calls across three months. PURPOSE The purpose of this paper was to describe the 3M's Visiting Neighbors protocol steps guiding the quality improvement procedures relating to program development, implementation, and evaluation. METHODS AND MATERIALS This Visiting Neighbors study used a single-group exploratory quality improvement design. This program was tested using quality improvement standards, including collecting participant questionnaires and visit observations. RESULTS Older adults (> 65 years) living alone (N = 30) participants were female (79%) with a mean age of 82.96 (SD = 7.87) years. Volunteer visitor participants (N = 10) were older adult females. Two volunteer visitors implemented each visit, guided by the 3M's activities manual. All visits were verified as being consistently delivered (fidelity). Enrollment and retention data found the program was feasible to conduct. The older adult participants' total program helpfulness ratings (1 to 5) were high (M = 51.27, SD = 3.77). All volunteer visitor's program helpfulness ratings were also high (M = 51.78, SD = 3.73). DISCUSSION The Visiting Neighbors program consistently engaged older Appalachian adults living alone in the 3M's activities. The feasibility and fidelity of the 3M's home visits were verified. The quality improvement processes included engaging the expert advisory committee and rural county stakeholders to ensure the quality of the program development, implementation, and evaluation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ubolrat Piamjariyakul
- West Virginia University School of Nursing, Morgantown, WV, United States of America
| | - Susan R. McKenrick
- West Virginia University School of Nursing, Morgantown, WV, United States of America
| | - Angel Smothers
- West Virginia University School of Nursing, Morgantown, WV, United States of America
| | - Angelo Giolzetti
- West Virginia University School of Medicine, Morgantown, WV, United States of America
| | - Helen Melnick
- West Virginia University School of Nursing, Morgantown, WV, United States of America
| | - Molly Beaver
- West Virginia University School of Nursing, Morgantown, WV, United States of America
| | - Saima Shafique
- West Virginia University School of Nursing, Morgantown, WV, United States of America
| | - Kesheng Wang
- West Virginia University School of Nursing, Morgantown, WV, United States of America
| | - Kerri J. Carte
- Family & Community Development, West Virginia University-Extension, Kanawha County, Charleston, WV, United States of America
| | - Brad Grimes
- Meredith Center for Career Services and Professional Development, West Virginia University College of Law, Morgantown, WV, United States of America
| | - Marc W. Haut
- West Virginia University School of Medicine, Morgantown, WV, United States of America
- Department of Behavioral Medicine/Psychiatry, Director, Memory Health Clinic, Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute, Morgantown, WV, United States of America
| | - R. Osvaldo Navia
- West Virginia University School of Medicine, Morgantown, WV, United States of America
- Division Chief of Geriatrics, Palliative Medicine & Hospice and Grace Kinney Mead Chair of Geriatrics, West Virginia University School of Medicine, Morgantown, WV, United States of America
| | - Julie Hicks Patrick
- Life-Span Developmental Psychology, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, United States of America
| | - Kirk Wilhelmsen
- West Virginia University School of Medicine, Morgantown, WV, United States of America
- Chief Cognitive Neurology, Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute, Morgantown, WV, United States of America
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Keith CM, Haut MW, Wilhelmsen K, Mehta RI, Miller M, Navia RO, Ward M, Lindberg K, Coleman M, McCuddy WT, Deib G, Giolzetti A, D'Haese PF. Frontal and temporal lobe correlates of verbal learning and memory in aMCI and suspected Alzheimer's disease dementia. Neuropsychol Dev Cogn B Aging Neuropsychol Cogn 2023; 30:923-939. [PMID: 36367308 DOI: 10.1080/13825585.2022.2144618] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/18/2022] [Accepted: 11/01/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022]
Abstract
Alzheimer's disease is primarily known for deficits in learning and retaining new information. This has long been associated with pathological changes in the mesial temporal lobes. The role of the frontal lobes in memory in Alzheimer's disease is less well understood. In this study, we examined the role of the frontal lobes in learning, recognition, and retention of new verbal information, as well as the presence of specific errors (i.e., intrusions and false-positive errors). Participants included one hundred sixty-seven patients clinically diagnosed with amnestic mild cognitive impairment or suspected Alzheimer's disease dementia who were administered the California Verbal Learning Test and completed high-resolution MRI. We confirmed the role of the mesial temporal lobes in learning and retention, including the volumes of the hippocampus, entorhinal cortex, and parahippocampal gyrus. In addition, false-positive errors were associated with all volumes of the mesial temporal lobes and widespread areas within the frontal lobes. Errors of intrusion were related to the supplementary motor cortex and hippocampus. Most importantly, the mesial temporal lobes interacted with the frontal lobes for learning, recognition, and memory errors. Lower volumes in both regions explained more performance variance than any single structure. This study supports the interaction of the frontal lobes with the temporal lobes in many aspects of memory in Alzheimer's disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cierra M Keith
- Department of Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia, United States
- Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia, United States
| | - Marc W Haut
- Department of Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia, United States
- Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia, United States
- Department of Neurology, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia, United States
| | - Kirk Wilhelmsen
- Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia, United States
- Department of Neurology, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia, United States
| | - Rashi I Mehta
- Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia, United States
- Department of Neuroradiology, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia, United States
| | - Mark Miller
- Department of Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia, United States
- Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia, United States
| | - R Osvaldo Navia
- Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia, United States
- Department of Medicine, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia, United States
| | - Melanie Ward
- Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia, United States
- Department of Neurology, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia, United States
| | - Katharine Lindberg
- Department of Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia, United States
- Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia, United States
| | - Michelle Coleman
- Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia, United States
| | - William T McCuddy
- Department of Neuropsychology, Barrow Neurological Institute, Phoenix, Arizona, United States
| | - Gerard Deib
- Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia, United States
- Department of Neuroradiology, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia, United States
| | - Angelo Giolzetti
- Department of Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia, United States
- Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia, United States
| | - Pierre-François D'Haese
- Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia, United States
- Department of Neurology, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia, United States
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Abstract
Deferred imitation has long held a privileged position in early cognitive development, considered an early marker of representational thought with links to language development and symbolic processes. Children with autism have difficulties with several abilities generally thought to be related to deferred imitation: immediate imitation, language, and symbolic play. However, few studies have examined deferred imitation in early autism. The present study examined both deferred, spontaneous imitation and immediate, elicited imitation on a set of carefully matched tasks in 36 young children with autism: 16 with early onset autism, 20 with regressive autism and two contrast groups, younger typically developing children (n = 20) and age matched children with significant developmental delays (n = 21). Analyses of co-variance controlling for differences in verbal mental age revealed significant main effects for task, but no main effect of group and no interaction of task by group. Deferred imitation scores were lower than immediate imitation scores for all groups. Imitation performance was related to overall intellectual functioning for all groups, and there were moderate and significant relations between imitation in the immediate elicited condition and in the spontaneous deferred condition for all groups. Finally, there were no differences between onset subgroups in imitation scores, suggesting that the two share a similar phenotype involving both types of imitation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sally J Rogers
- The MIND Institute, University California Davis, Sacramento, CA 95817, USA.
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