How do dementia researchers view support tools for informed consent procedures of persons with dementia?

Abstract

The study aimed to assess how dementia researchers view eight support tools that have been defined to enhance informed consent (IC) procedures for people with dementia (PwD). In an online survey, 19 dementia researchers from Germany and Portugal evaluated the tools in terms of 4 implementation criteria. Overall, they all had a very positive attitude towards the support tools, whereby the tools person-centered attitude of the researcher and elaborated plain language were the most highly rated of the eight tools. Our findings also indicated that familiar support tools were assessed more favorably than those that were previously unknown. Overall, the results of this study showed that the participating dementia researchers were open to the use of decision support measures in PwD and were willing to apply the support tools in practice.