Digital Public Defence: Lara Hvidsten

Cand.med. Lara Hvidsten at Institute of Clinical Medicine will be defending the thesis “Quality of life in young-onset dementia - the untimely diagnosis” for the degree of PhD (Philosophiae Doctor).

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Photo: Martin Lundsvoll v/Aldring og Helse.

The University of Oslo is closed and the public defence will be held as a video conference over Zoom.

The defence will follow regular procedure as far as possible, hence it will be open to the public and the audience can ask ex auditorio questions when invited to do so.

Click here to participate in the public defence

Download Zoom here

 

Digital Trial Lecture – time and place

See Digital Trial Lecture.

Adjudication committee

  • First opponent: Associate Professor Sebastian Palmqvist, Lund University, Sverige
  • Second opponent: Professor Frans Boch Waldorff, University of Southern Denmark
  • Third member and chair of the evaluation committee: Professor Toril Dammen, University of Oslo

Chair of the Defence

Professor Emeritus Svein Friis, University of Oslo

Principal Supervisor

Hege Kersten, Forskningssjef Sykehuset Telemark HF; Førsteamanuensis, Farmasøytisk institutt, Universitetet i Oslo; Forsker Nasjonal kompetansetjeneste for aldring og helse

Summary

Young onset dementia (YOD) is characterized by debut of dementia symptoms before the age of 65, affecting up to 5000 people in Norway. This is often due to Alzheimer’s dementia(AD) or frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Living with YOD during active and productive years may impair quality of life (QOL). Appropriately tailored healthcare services require knowledge about factors influential to QOL.

In this Nordic multicenter collaboration, we explored the QOL of community-dwelling people with young onset AD (n = 50) and FTD (n = 38) during a two-year period. QOL was assessed by the QOL-AD questionnaire. We assessed factors associated with QOL, change over time, and differences between the two diagnostic groups. We also compared QOL in persons with YOD to persons with late onset dementia (LOD, n = 100, age > 70 yrs) and their family carers.

Our results underscore the significance of depression to poorer QOL, whether younger or older, having dementia or being a family carer. QOL was poorer in persons with young onset FTD compared to AD, but generally better compared to persons with LOD. Despite having dementia in the family, many families still manage to maintain good QOL.

Additional information

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Published May 11, 2020 1:02 PM - Last modified May 25, 2020 2:23 PM