The impact of an occupational therapy group cognitive rehabilitation program for people with dementia.
Aislinn Griffin, Aoife O Gorman, David Robinson and 2 others
PMID 35288954WHAT IT FOUND
People with dementia who completed a 5-week occupational therapy group cognitive rehabilitation program with individualised goals, home tasks, a handbook and caregiver support showed better everyday memory test scores and reported better quality of life, performance and satisfaction, with gains remaining at follow-up.
Key findings
01Everyday memory test scores improved significantly after the 5-week program and remained significantly higher than baseline at 3-month follow-up.
02Participants reported better quality of life and higher performance and satisfaction with everyday memory activities after the program, and these remained significantly better at follow-up.
03Family or caregiver attendance was common, with 44 (75.9%) attending two or more sessions and 33 (56.9%) attending all five sessions, but caregiver attendance was not linked to significant differences in outcome scores.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
It was a pilot pre-test-post-test study with no control group, so improvements cannot be separated from time, expectation, or other factors. The study was not designed or powered to definitively test effectiveness. The treating occupational therapist took the outcome measures and there was no blinding, although participants completed self-rating measures themselves. Only community-dwelling adults who could travel to hospital, had adequate hearing and eyesight for a group, and scored 18 or above on the Mini Mental State Examination were included.
Declared interests
The research received no specific grant, and the authors declared no conflict of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read these improvements as proof the program works. The study had no control group, was a pilot, and the treating therapist took outcome measures without blinding.