Dementia Care Research and Psychosocial Factors

Area of Science:

• Gerontology
• Neuroscience
• Creative Arts Therapies

Background:

• Accessibility to dementia-friendly therapeutic art programs is a significant barrier for patients with dementia (PWD) and their caregivers.
• The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated adaptation of in-person programs to remote formats.

Purpose of the Study:

• To adapt an in-person therapeutic art class into an 8-week, dyadic, fully remote program.
• To measure the impact of this remote program on patient behavior, caregiver burden, and the patient-caregiver relationship.

Main Methods:

• A double crossover design was employed with participant dyads (one PWD and their caregiver).
• Dyads were mailed weekly art kits for an 8-week intervention period, contrasted with an 8-week control period of standard care.
• Assessments of patient symptom severity, relationship quality, and caregiver burden were administered at enrollment, 8 weeks, and 16 weeks. Mixed-effects regression models analyzed differences.

Main Results:

• Remote therapeutic art program delivery was feasible, though 33% attrition occurred, mainly due to assessment availability.
• No overall significant differences were found in primary outcomes.
• Interaction analyses revealed significant decreases in verbal aggression for patients with mild cognitive impairment or atypical dementia (p=0.01, p=0.02).
• When a child was the caregiver, significant improvements in caregiver accomplishment (p=0.05) and decreases in patient verbal aggression (p=0.04) were observed.

Conclusions:

• At-home therapeutic arts programs offer a feasible alternative to traditional in-person settings for patients with dementia.
• Higher-powered studies are needed to confirm the efficacy of remote therapeutic art interventions for mood, behavior, caregiver burden, and patient-caregiver relationships.