A Systematic Review of Communication-Focused Dementia Interventions for Indigenous Communities

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Health Communication
• Indigenous Health

Background:

• Dementia disproportionately affects Indigenous peoples, highlighting inequities in risk, prevalence, and healthcare access.
• Culturally relevant interventions are crucial for dementia care, yet evidence for communication support is limited.
• Effective communication is vital across the dementia care pathway for Indigenous communities.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically review dementia communication interventions developed for Indigenous populations.
• To explore factors influencing the effectiveness of these interventions.
• To identify gaps in research regarding communication skills and abilities for people with dementia and their partners.

Main Methods:

• Systematic literature search across multiple databases, repositories, and search engines.
• Inclusion criteria focused on interventions targeting communicative skills, ability, or health communication with a cultural focus on Indigenous communities.
• Quality appraisal using an adapted Well Living House Quality Appraisal Tool.

Main Results:

• Six studies met inclusion criteria, with five published since 2019.
• No interventions targeted communicative skills/abilities for individuals with dementia, their partners, or healthcare providers.
• All evaluated interventions were health communication-focused, utilizing diverse resources tailored for Canadian, US, and Australian Indigenous communities.

Conclusions:

• Intervention effectiveness is influenced by the representation of Indigenous people, cultures, and languages.
• Methods and settings for knowledge sharing, alongside communication, connection, and collaboration, are critical.
• Further research should focus on developing and rigorously evaluating interventions for communication skills in dementia care for Indigenous populations.