Social-based care in nursing homes greatly improved the quality of life of those with dementia, researchers reported.
Compared with having usual care, those receiving WHELD (well-being and health for people with dementia) care showed a significant improvement in quality-of-life scores (mean difference 2.54, 95% CI 0.81-4.28, Cohen's D effect size 0.24), found Clive Ballard, MD, of Exeter University in the U.K., and colleagues.
As noted in the study online in PLoS Medicine, other notable benefits of the intervention included an improvement in agitation (mean difference 4.27, 95% CI −7.39 to −1.15, Cohen's D 0.23) and overall neuropsychiatric symptoms (mean difference 4.55, −7.07 to −2.02, Cohen's D 0.30).
In an email to MedPage Today, Ballard explained that the group "wanted to develop evidence-based effective training that was practical and could be implemented widely," adding that there is both "variable and often poor standard of care for people with dementia" as well as "very little evidence-based training for staff [of care homes]."
People with dementia living in care homes often have extremely low levels of activity and social interaction, he noted, with a previous study by his team suggesting that these individuals may receive on average of only 2 minutes of social interaction over 6 waking hours.