Evaluating the effects of diffused lavender in an adult day care center for patients with dementia in an effort to...

Area of Science:

• Gerontology and Dementia Care
• Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Background:

• Behavioral issues (BIs) like restlessness, agitation, anger, and anxiety are common in elderly dementia patients requiring monitoring.
• Non-pharmacological interventions are sought to manage these challenging behaviors in adult day care settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the impact of diffused lavender aromatherapy on the frequency of behavioral issues in adult day care center participants with dementia.
• To explore differences in BI frequency across age cohorts, genders, and specific behaviors (restlessness/wandering, agitation, anger, anxiety).

Main Methods:

• A pre-post quasi-experimental design was employed at a private nonprofit adult day care center.
• Participants (elderly patients >65 years with dementia) received diffused lavender aromatherapy twice daily for 20 minutes over two months.
• Behavioral issues were systematically recorded using the behavior/intervention monthly flow record before and after the intervention.

Main Results:

• Overall behavioral issues did not significantly differ between pre- and post-intervention periods (p=0.06).
• A significant reduction in agitation occurrences was observed post-intervention (129 vs. 25, p<0.01).
• The 70-85 age cohort demonstrated significantly less agitation compared to the 85-100 age cohort (p=0.04).

Conclusions:

• Twice-daily diffused lavender aromatherapy effectively reduced agitation in elderly dementia patients, particularly in the 70-85 age group.
• No significant effect was found on restlessness/wandering, anger, or anxiety, possibly due to study sample size.
• Lavender aromatherapy shows promise as a non-pharmacological approach for managing specific behavioral disturbances in dementia care.