This study seeks to understand the effects of adult day programs on older adults, especially those with dementia, and their caregivers. A prospective cohort study will be conducted in the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, and Ontario. Participants will be (1) older adults with dementia who attend a day program, and their caregivers, and (2) older adults with dementia in the community who do not attend a day program, and their caregivers. The objectives are to (1) evaluate the effects of day programs on attendee and caregiver outcomes, and (2) compare day program use patterns, attendee and caregiver social identities, day program characteristics, and day program outcomes between the 4 provinces, and (3) to explore what attendee and caregiver social identities and day program characteristics are associated with study outcomes, and with day program attendance/non-attendance.

Adult day programs provide critical supports to both, older adults with dementia in the community, and their family/friend caregivers. This is critical because ensuring high-quality care in the community for as long as possible, and avoiding or delaying facility-based continuing care are key priorities of individuals with dementia, their caregivers, and healthcare systems. While 61% of the 597,000 Canadians with dementia live in the community, about 10% of newly admitted nursing home residents have relatively low care needs that could be met in the community with the right supports. Caregivers to individuals with dementia (most of whom are women) provide more care hours per week (26 vs 17) than caregivers to older adults without dementia, are more likely to experience distress (45% vs 26%), and a caregiver's risk of distress is 1.6 times higher if the individual in need of care exhibits behavioural problems. However, research on the effectiveness of day programs is inconsistent. Generally, the methodological quality of studies is poor, and we especially lack Canadian research and research on individuals with multiple, intersecting vulnerabilities. Our research objectives are:

1. To evaluate the association of day program exposure with primary outcomes (better quality of life of attendees and caregivers), and secondary outcomes (better mental health of attendees and caregivers, increased time to admission to congregate care, slower cognitive and physical decline of attendees, lower rates of attendees' and caregivers' emergency room registrations, hospital admissions, and days in hospital)
2. To compare day program use patterns, attendee and caregiver social identities, day program characteristics, and day program outcomes between the 4 provinces
3. To explore what attendee and caregiver social identities, and day program characteristics are associated with primary and secondary outcomes, and with day program attendance/non-attendance

In this prospective, cross-provincial cohort study (York Region, Ontario; Interior Health, British Columbia; Calgary, Alberta; Winnipeg, Manitoba), a total of 1,000 day program attendees with dementia (250 per region), plus their primary caregivers will be recruited. A comparison group of 2,000 non-attendees with dementia and their caregivers will be created. Participants' longitudinal health administrative data will be combined with repeated (baseline and after 1 and 2 years) surveys to include critical variables not routinely collected by healthcare systems (e.g., quality of life, social identities). Primary study outcomes are quality of life of the person with dementia and their caregiver. Secondary study outcomes include mental health of individuals with dementia and caregivers, cognitive and physical decline of individuals with dementia, time to admission to congregate care, and system-level rates of emergency room registrations, hospital admissions, and days in hospital (including alternative level of care) of individuals with dementia and caregivers. Using a day program survey, we will also assess day program characteristics (e.g., number of spaces, staffing, programming). Using general estimating equations and time-to-event models, these outcomes will be compared between groups of day program exposure (no, low, medium, high). Models will be adjusted for community-based services (e.g., home care, respite care), day program characteristics, social identities of older adults and caregivers, time since day program admission, and other older adult and caregiver characteristics.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Older adults (65+ years) with a diagnosis of dementia, who live in the community, and either attend an adult day program (cohort 1), or receive continuing care in the community with an initial RAI-HC assessment completed (cohort 2)
• Primary caregiver (i.e., most involved with and informed about the care) of an eligible older adult

Exclusion Criteria:

• Older adults with or without dementia who do not receive any community-based continuing care service
• Day program attendees or community care recipients who do not have a diagnosis of dementia or who are younger than 65 years
• Secondary caregivers

The study focuses on community care systems in the Calgary Health Zone (Alberta), Interior Health Region (British Columbia), Winnipeg Regional Health Authority (Manitoba), and York Region (Ontario). All of these regions assess day program eligibility using comparable processes, criteria, and assessments (i.e. RAI-HC). There are 89 publicly subsidized day programs in Alberta (~3,300 spaces), 95 (~1,500 spaces) in British Columbia, 70 (~1,000 spaces) in Manitoba, and 300 (~6,000 spaces) in Ontario. The numbers of individuals with dementia in the community are ~32,000 in Alberta, ~47,000 in British Columbia, ~11,000 in Manitoba, ~153,000 in Ontario.

The yearly average number of completed RAI-HC assessments is ~20,000-30,000 in Alberta, ~34,000-39,000 in British Columbia, and ~10,000 in Manitoba. The estimated number of day program attendees is >20,000/year (>200,000 within the study period), each with multiple assessments.

The data collected in this study include identifiable, sensitive healthcare variables. Therefore, we are required by provincial regulations and by our ethics boards to keep and analyze the data in a secure, encrypted, and firewall protected virtual data environment. Only persons who meet regional and provincial confidentiality requirements will be allowed to access the data. Data access can be requested with the principal investigator of this study and eligibility will be determined on an individual basis.