Dementia Care Research and Psychosocial Factors

Area of Science:

• Gerontology
• Psychosocial Interventions
• Dementia Care

Background:

• Dementia affects over 55 million globally, necessitating interventions for people living with dementia (PLWD) and their families.
• Japanese dementia cafés offer simultaneous support, but evidence of effectiveness is limited.
• This study evaluated a novel psychosocial program integrating entertainment and non-professional facilitation to reduce participation barriers.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the feasibility and preliminary effectiveness of a group-based, multi-component psychosocial support program for PLWD and their families.
• To incorporate entertainment elements (comedy, music) and non-professional facilitators to enhance accessibility.
• To evaluate the program's impact on cognitive function, daily living activities, depressive symptoms, and care burden.

Main Methods:

• A 12-week single-arm intervention trial involving 10 pairs of PLWD and family carers.
• Program components included simultaneous participation, group format, needs-based approach (reminiscence, stress management, laughter activities), and non-professional facilitation.
• Six sessions (3 music, 3 comedy) were conducted over three months.

Main Results:

• High participant satisfaction (84.5/100) and acceptance, with a dropout rate below 25%.
• Significant improvements observed in PLWD's cognitive function (MMSE: Δ 2.4) and daily living abilities (Barthel Index: Δ 2.9).
• Slight improvement in family members' depressive symptoms (CES-D: Δ -0.5), with no significant change in care burden (J-ZBI: Δ 3.6).

Conclusions:

• The psychosocial program is feasible and shows preliminary effectiveness in improving outcomes for PLWD and their families.
• High participant satisfaction indicates potential as a scalable model for dementia care.
• A randomized controlled trial is ongoing to further validate these findings.