Clinical question
What are the effects of personally tailored activities on psychosocial outcomes for people with dementia living in the community?
Bottom line
Offering personally tailored activities to people with dementia living in the community may reduce challenging behaviour and slightly improve quality of life, but does not seem beneficial in improving depression, affect, passivity, engagement or most caregiver‐related outcomes (eg, burden, quality of life or depression). No adverse effects were reported.
Caveat
Four studies were conducted in the US and 1 in Brazil. The participants were people with dementia living in their own homes. The cognitive status of study participants varied, with Mini-Mental State Examination scores of 11.6 in one study and up to 23.9 in another. Some studies were conducted on participants with an early stage of mild cognitive impairment, and some were performed on those in a late stage of MCI. Interventions were mostly based on the Tailored Activity Programme, which is designed to select activities matched to the performance capabilities of the participants.
Context
People with dementia living in their own homes often have too little to do. If a person with dementia has the chance to take part in activities that match their personal interests and preferences, this may lead to a better quality of life, reduce challenging behaviour, such as restlessness or aggression, and have other positive effects.
Cochrane Systematic Review
Möhler R, et al. Personally tailored activities for improving psychosocial outcomes for people with dementia in community settings. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2020, Issue 8. Art. No.: CD010515. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD010515.pub2. This review contains 5 trials with a total of 311 participants.
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