The impact of reminiscence on the quality of life of residents with dementia in long-stay care
In the context of increasing recognition of the potential value of reminiscence in maintaining or improving quality of life, O’Shea et al. (2014) evaluated the effectiveness of a structured education-based reminiscence programme for people with dementia in long stay residential care settings in ROI. Effectiveness was measured in a two-group, single-blind clustered randomised trial, using self-rated quality of life as the primary outcome. The results on the effects of the intervention suggest that there was a positive but clinically non-significant improvement in the mean quality of life of the residents in the intervention group compared with the control group. However, the results of per-protocol analysis, which includes only units that followed protocol, indicates that there was a clinically and statistically significant effect of the intervention on quality of life of residents with those in the intervention groups experiencing a better improvement in quality of life compared to those in the control group.
O'SHEA, E., DEVANE, D., COONEY, A., CASEY, D., JORDAN, F., HUNTER, A., MURPHY, E., NEWELL, J., CONNOLLY, S. and MURPHY, K., 2014. The impact of reminiscence on the quality of life of residents with dementia in long-stay care. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 29(10), pp. 1062-1070.