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. 2018 Apr 5;10(1):37.
doi: 10.1186/s13195-018-0357-z.

The impact of group activities and their content on persons with dementia attending them

Jiska Cohen-Mansfield  1   2   3
Affiliations

The impact of group activities and their content on persons with dementia attending them

Jiska Cohen-Mansfield. Alzheimers Res Ther. .

Abstract

Background: Individuals suffering from dementia and residing in nursing homes often feel lonely and bored. This study examined the engagement and mood of people with dementia in group activities, and how personal characteristics, such as cognitive function, may impact on an individual's responses to group activities.

Methods: The study included 102 participants, who took part in group activities while their mood and engagement levels were observed. Participants were invited to attend 10 different types of group activities, each of which was offered twice.

Results: Results found improved engagement and mood during group activities as compared to control no-group times. Significant relationships between the type of activity and ratings of engagement and mood were also found. Although participants with higher levels of cognitive functioning manifested greater responsiveness to groups, the pattern of response to different contents did not differ by cognitive function.

Conclusions: This study shows the potential utility of group activities for improving quality of life of persons with dementia and demonstrates a methodology that can be used for quality improvement to optimize group contents. Future research should expand the range of contents of group activities in order to enhance the options for improving mood and engagement of individuals with dementia.

Keywords: Cognitive impairment; Dementia; Group activities; Mood.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

This study was approved by the Research Ethics Board (REB) of Baycrest Health Sciences.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The author declares that she has no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Mean impact on different outcomes, after controlling for cognitive function. Note: different outcome variables are not comparable, as they involve different scales. Engagement scale, 0 = none of the time to 5 = most or all of the time; active participation, 0 = not at all to 4 = very much; attitude, 1 = very negative to 7 = very positive; positive mood, 0 = not at all to 4 = very much; sleep scale, 0 = none of the time to 6 = all of the time
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Impact of group by participants’ cognitive function
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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