A randomized control trial of activity scheduling to reduce the impact of the caring role on older adults with dementia

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundParticipating in meaningful activities is important to an individual’s wellbeing. Activity scheduling enables older adults with dementia and their spouse caregivers to structure their activities consistently in the directions they value.MethodThis was a 12‐week single‐blinded randomized control trial using a parallel group experimental design study. Community‐dwelling older adults with mild to moderate dementia and their spouses received the community health education program during the first two‐weeks. Then the participants were randomly assigned to one of the two groups for the following 10 weeks. In the control group, participants received 10 weekly education sessions on dementia care education. In the experimental group, participants received the same dementia care education program plus activity scheduling offered by occupational therapists with the intervention focused on scheduling events that are pleasant and improving communication.ResultFrom August 2018 to August 2019, 50 couples completed the intervention. The activity scheduling showed improvements with respect to alleviating the impact of the caregiving role, reducing the behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia, decreasing the caring demand and generally improving the quality of life. A significant difference between the two groups was shown regarding the impact of the caring role, and the alleviation of disruption and depression behavior, with an effect size of .61 (95% CI = .39‐.67), .45 (95% CI = .35‐.71) and .50 (95% CI = .35‐.71) respectively. The differences between the groups indicated the experimental group showed an improvement over time in alleviating the role of caring, with Cohen’s d = .64 (95% CI : .38 to .78), and alleviating disruption and depression behavior, with an effect size of .45 (95% CI = .38‐.52) and .50 (95% CI = .43‐.59) respectively. Moreover, the number of caring hours needed, dropping from 6.98 to 5.98 hours in the experimental group.ConclusionActivity Scheduling is straightforward to administer and personalized in nature. There were significant reductions in caregiving demand. Through proper coaching and regular facilitation, AS can help caregivers create pleasant events in their daily living and quality of life of people receiving care can be much enhanced.