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Effectiveness of Light Therapy in Cognitively Impaired Persons: A Metaanalysis of Randomized Controlled Trials
Huei-Ling Chiu1, Pi-Tuan Chan2, Hsin Chu3,4,5
1School of Nursing, College of Nursing, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Objectives:
To explore the effects of light therapy on behavioral disturbances (BDs), sleep quality, and depression.
Design:
Meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
Setting:
PubMed, Cochrane Library, Medline, EMBASE, Web of Science, and clinicaltrials.gov of selected randomized controlled trials and previous systematic reviews were searched.
Participants:
Cognitively impaired persons.
Measurements:
Information was extracted on study characteristics, quality assessment, and outcomes. Outcome measures included BDs, sleep quality, and depression.
Results:
Nine randomized controlled trials were examined. The results showed that light therapy has a moderate effect on BD (g = -0.61) and depression (g = -0.58) and a small effect on total sleep time at night (g = 0.25). Subgroup analysis indicated that a light intensity of 2,500 lux or greater has a greater effect on depression than an intensity of less than 2,500 lux (P = .03), and the low risk of bias in blinding was superior to the RCTs deemed to be of high or unclear risk of bias in blinding in terms of BD (P = .02).
Conclusion:
Light therapy can relieve BD, improve sleep quality, and alleviate symptoms of depression for cognitively impaired persons.
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