Chronic Disease Self-Management Programs: Relevance for Persons with Dementia

The context for this study is the work of the Healthy Brain Initiative. The CDC has established a cooperative agreement with the Alzheimer’s Association to develop and implement a multifaceted approach to look at cognitive health as a public health issue. Late in 2010, the Association commissioned a review of the major chronic disease prevention programs from a systems approach to begin to understand the source of findings that Medicare beneficiaries with Alzheimer’s and related disorders are much higher cost than those simply with a single chronic disease and no AD. This led to the conclusion that Chronic Disease Self‐Management Program (CDSMP) is the current “gold standard” initiative in this arena. Thus, the Association in cooperation with Dr. Kate Lorig, the researcher who developed CDSMP, began systematic research to explore the extent to which persons with AD are served in CDSMP workshops. Dr. Lorig is the Director of the Stanford Patient Education Research Center and Professor of Medicine in the Stanford School of Medicine