[The impact of different reference groups for the assessment of quality of life in people suffering from dementia-determination of competence groups with HILDE].

The HILDE project proceeds from a theoretical conception of quality of life which considers both the significance of objective living conditions claimed in the Swedish level of living approach and the significance of processes of subjective perceptions and judgements accentuated in the American quality of life approach. Since component definitions of quality of life regularly fail to reflect empirical relationships between the differentiated aspects, quality of life is defined as a constellation of personal and environmental material and immaterial resources and subjective wellbeing. Under the assumption that an adequate assessment of quality of life of people with dementia can not exclusively be based on their cognitive impairment, i.e. their stage of the disease, but must also reflect the realisation of individual preferences in a given life situation, the empirical portion of this contribution identifies and independently cross-validates in random subsamples four patterns of competence in a sample of 362 nursing home residents suffering from dementia. Each of these four different dementia syndrome groups is characterised by specific needs and values. They can be used as a point of reference within as well as between these competence groups, in order to plan individual interventions with competence-oriented expectations.