Table 1 Characteristics of the VISTA and MGAT studies
Video-Imaging Synthesis of Treating Alzheimer’s Disease (VISTA) | Mobile Geriatric Assessment Team (MGAT) | |
|---|---|---|
Design | Double-blind, placebo controlled RCT | Single-blind RCT – Assessments were performed by healthcare professionals blind to patient status |
Participants | Community-dwelling adults with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s Disease (n = 130) | Rural, community-dwelling, frail elderly patients (n = 182) |
Intervention | Patients were randomized to receive either galantamine (16–24 mg/d) or a placebo for a 4-month period | Patients were randomized to receive either usual care by family physicians or care in which physician efforts were supplemented by a specialized geriatric intervention over a 3-month period |
Primary Outcome Measure | Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS) | Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS) |
GAS Methodology | Assessment: Two independent GAS assessments were conducted at each time-point. - Patient/caregiver-rated GAS was assessed in a clinician-facilitated interview - Clinician-rated GAS was assessed following interviews with patients and/or caregivers. | Assessment: Patient-rated GAS was assessed in a clinician-facilitated interview both at baseline and three-month follow-up |
Goal setting: Goals were freely selected based on symptoms considered important to the patient | Goal setting: Participants selected goals based on a list of 42 symptoms or problems identified by the Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA) | |
Goal weighting: Patients and caregivers ranked (weighted) their goals in order of importance. Clinicians did not rank goals, so all were assigned a weighting of ‘1’ | Goal weighting: As goals were not ranked, all were assigned a weighting of ‘1’ | |
Baseline scores: Baseline raw GAS scores set at ‘0’ | Baseline scores: Baseline raw GAS scores were set at ‘-1’, except for a small number of participants (n = 5). These participants were assigned baseline scores of ‘-2’ based on the clinical judgement that their situation could not plausibly deteriorate. | |
Goal selection for one-goal GAS: One-goal GAS scores were derived for patients/caregivers using their highest-ranking goal One-goal GAS scores were derived for clinicians by selecting the first goal listed for each patient | Goal selection for one-goal GAS: One-goal GAS scores were derived by randomly selecting a goal for each participant using a custom excel macro | |
Number of Goals Set: The median number of goals set was 3 (range 1–6) | Number of Goals Set: The median number of goals set was 5 (range 2–15) |